Leading Rivalry
by PersonaOfBetrayal
Summary: Brother is broken over the departure of Yuna, but when she returns two weeks later, he is ecstatic. But she had brought her lover along with her. Join the Gullwings as they hunt spheres, defeat monstrous fiends, and as a certain pilot struggles to make amends with his cousin's true love. That is, unless Brother's stupidity doesn't kill him first... TXY, Post-GoodEnding, no YXB, ew.
1. A New Start

**A.N- Hello, readers! I am back with another story!...Huh? Where'd you all go?**

**This will be a multi-chapter story, probably about the life as a sphere hunter, but I'll tell you what inspired me to make this. I love to think that after the Good Ending, Yuna persuades Tidus to become a sphere hunter/Gullwings member. Now, I'm pretty sure you know of the…issue that Brother has. He has a huge crush on Yuna, his cousin…o_o. So now the lazy good-for-nothing, 'leader' of the Gullwings has to put up with his arch-nemesis: Tidus, the man who stole his 'precious Yuna'. And all while they get to a new start for the Gullwings...**

**I know, it's pretty lame. But Brother's character is fun to mess around with, so…why not? :D**

**Also, to save you time, whenever there's Al-Bhed dialogue I will put the English translation in brackets beside it. I hope this isn't too distracting.**

**Anyways, into the actual story we go!**

* * *

**Prologue**

Brother was an Al-Bhed airship pilot who…wasn't exactly the most mundane person in Spira, or the most capable of doing anything. Children, Al-Bhed and Spiran alike, had always pointed and giggled at the overly flamboyant state of his chocobo-coloured Iroquois. Their mothers had always scurried away or screamed at the man, for he was so swamped in colourful flaming tattoos you could almost mistake them for a patched up undershirt from afar. His washed out soil coloured dungarees were a tad too baggy for many peoples' likings; prodding passer-bys into obscuring their eyesight at the mere presence of him.

The same disgust went for his face. An ear that was so pierced, you would wonder why it hadn't gone soggy after all these years; two beady green spiral eyes, which had somehow paled into a blackish tint thanks to his dark eyeliner; chapped brown lips which seemed to protrude outwards a little more than the average human; and the voice which came from those lips: a thick Al-Bhed accent which was nearly impossible to take seriously.

Yes, this Brother was not a very charming individual, especially seeing as he was the first child of the Al-Bhed leader: Cid, and even more so how the father and son didn't even get along very well, as they had a violent falling-out soon after the coming of the Eternal Calm. With his old friend, Buddy, they travelled to the north to fish out an airship that they had heard about. This would come to be known as the Celsius: the Gullwings' headquarters and their main method of transport.

But trust me; you do not want to know how the Gullwings got their name.

For Brother was the leader of said Gullwings, and considering how _strange_ he is, he would have a most crazy story to tell about this name. Speaking of that, the Gullwings were a group of sphere hunters; which…well, hunt spheres all around the world. Brother founded the group for Yevon knows what purposes, and the first members were him, Buddy, and his younger hyperactive sister, Rikku. Eventually there came more members: Barkeep and his girlfriend, Shinra the little genius, the young female warrior Paine, his blessed cousin Yuna, and many others.

However, the appearance of Yuna; High Summoner and bringer of the Eternal Calm had sent or rather, forced Brother into yet another wild adventure. Not because of the unknown darkness that had once again plagued Spira with fiends, driving the Gullwings to temporarily drop their sphere-hunting duties and become fiend exterminators, but the sheer knowledge that Yuna had come to stay with him for a while drove his emotions insane.

These emotions were something else. They were not the feelings of wailing despair that he felt when he was forced to destroy Home, nor the bone-chilling fear that he felt when he came face to face with Sin itself onboard the Fahrenheit. These were feelings that were almost indescribable. It was a mix between soaring up into Spira's aquamarine sky and visions of sweet dreams, while his heart felt like it wanted to burst from his chest and fly over to his cousin. Yet there was another feeling: Pain. Stinging, infectious, mind-rotting pain. It gnawed at his slightly shrunken brain, threatening to make him cry sizzling hot tears and make him scream in teasing agony.

Brother knew what this feeling was. He _always_ knew what it was. He had let his closest friends in on his dilemma, but had never dared to confess to Yuna himself. For he just predicted that it would scare her, terrify her. She would run away and never speak to him again. He kept it to himself, thinking that as long as he didn't let his word slip, she would always stay by him.

But in the couple of weeks…she ran away from him anyway. No farewell hugs, no farewell speeches, nothing.

She just touched down on the shores of Besaid, completely forgetting about him, and dived into the arms of…_that_ man.

* * *

**Chapter One: The New Start**

"Come on, Brother," Buddy muttered and looked at him, irritated about his old friend's overreactions. "It's been two weeks. You can't stay like this forever."

"She's gone…she's forgotten me…" The dramatic pilot whimpered, slumped in the Celsius' driver's seat. He gave out a loud sob as he planted his hands over his eyes, staining the leather fabric of his fingerless gloves.

"For the millionth time, she hasn't forgotten you!" Buddy rose, annoyed with his leader's whining. He tightened his grip on his computer from his control centre. "She's found what she was looking for, and now she has no reason to be with us!"

This only made Brother cry more and lean into the tall handles of the airship's steering wheel. The Celsius was completely quiet, save for the gentle humming from the engines below and Brother's occasional moans and sobs.

"Yeah! What he said!" A squeaky voice from Brother's left announced itself. "I've put up with a lot of your stuff, but this takes the entire stupid cake! Leave Yuna alone!"

"_Crid ib, Rikku! _(Shut up, Rikku!)_" _Brother yelled, trying to swat at his sister's arm from his position. "_Drec ec hud ypuid oui! Cysa vun oui, Buddy!_ (This is not about you! Same for you, Buddy!)"

"Whatever," Rikku and Buddy said in unison.

The bridge of the Celsius went silent again, obviously save for the continuous squawks and seething from the emotionally, 'unstable' pilot. He wasn't even a pilot at all anymore. Buddy had kept and locked the airship's status on autopilot to save their lives from a careless crash, since Brother was still weeping over his, 'lost' cousin. Rikku and Buddy sighed heavily, staring out into the clouds that zoomed by.

"We're getting nowhere in this condition," Buddy mused out loud. He got up from his seat and strode over to a large array of machinery, gauges and computers. "And I can hardly work this thing."

"Yeah," Rikku breathed, falling backwards and staring up into the ceiling. "It's really quiet. So boring. So annoying as well!"

Truth was, most of the Gullwings had now disbanded. Ever since the defeat of the super-machina, Vegnagun, and its misunderstood possessor, Shuyin, the Gullwings' members had cleared off either because of the celebrations, or simply because they weren't interested in hunting spheres anymore. Shinra, the genius boy of the group, had left to join Rin in a massive project to extract energy from the Farplane: the realm of the dead. Clasko, a clumsy former Chocobo Knight, had left for the Calm Lands to start his very own chocobo ranch. Calli had gone with him, being an avid lover of the large golden birds. O'aka the XXIII had paid off his debt and returned to his shop at Lake Macalania and Yuna had stayed in Besaid with the man of her dreams, literally.

The only members left were Brother, Buddy, Rikku, Barkeep and his girlfriend, and Paine. Much to everybody's shock, the young female warrior had decided to stay on the Celsius, saying that she really had nowhere else to go. Paine sticking around was probably the only reason why Rikku wasn't clawing at the neon walls, since she still had the darkly coloured and very scary woman to mess around with. Much to Paine's good-hearted annoyance.

"I kinda hate to say this, but I wish things went back to the way they were," Rikku spoke. She sat up as her blonde braids fell in front of her face. "You know, when that Shuyin guy was still trying to kill us all. When things were actually fun!"

"No kidding," Brother mewled, earning a pair of eyes rolling at him.

"Speaking of that, 'Shuyin guy'," Buddy started, tapping the computer screen which once belonged to Shinra. "I've been talking to that man through Besaid's Commsphere."

"You mean…the guy with…" Brother trailed off, finally lifting his head to look at the complex machina.

"Yeah," Buddy confirmed. "If you just get past the fact that he looks almost exactly like Shuyin, he's a pretty charming guy. Always has that smile on his face, and he's pretty laid-back. Yuna's really happy with him around, and vice-versa."

Brother merely grunted at this. He still remembers the very first time he and that man had met two years ago. It was a dark foggy night, and he was out on the inky western oceans with a salvage ship. Brother had sent his sister and a small group of Al-Bhed to scavenge the ruins of the once proud Baaj Temple. They had hoped to find renewable chunks of scrap metal for one of their projects, but instead they had come back with what they thought was a fiend disguised as a human. This, 'fiend' did not understand even the slightest bit of Al-Bhed, much to Brother's short temper.

Buddy turned around so that his goggled gaze was meeting Brother's, a slight condescending tone in his voice. "You'd really like him, you know. Just give him a chance."

"_U el ryd kyurk rieh dned dnuiw! (_I am not going near that thief!_)" _Brother screamed, malice and jealously seeping through his accent. _"Ni dyyg la Yuna! _(He took my Yuna!)_"_

"_Yuna zem rifih ayohm, sunuh! _(Yuna was never yours, moron!)" Rikku reacted, leaping out of her seat and stomping over to her pitiful sibling. "_Ty ayo gryz nyz losn mni net tyri dy kid nul pesg!? Khuz ib!_ (Do you know how much she had done to get him back!? Grow up!"

"_Z-z-zicc zna tut ni tumebbieh wyh dzy aiehm, dnir!? _(W-w-well why did he disappear for two years, then!?)_" _Brother stuttered, trying to win the poorly constructed argument.

"_Un. La. Yevon! _(Oh. My. Yevon!)" Rikku facepalmed, wanting to punch her Brother in the face. "_Oui ehi e cymd seomi... _(You are a lost cause…)"

"…_Fryd? _(…What?)" Brother scratched his almost bald head, not thinking about the fact that his, 'friend' had suddenly vanished from everybody's life two years prior, only recently making a comeback to apparently ruin his hard-earned life.

"_Tet oui dfu icat du pa vneahtc yd uha buehd!? _(Did you two used to be friends at one point!?)" Rikku squeaked, clenching her petite hands into fists. "_Tet oui uhla dnicd res yd uha buehd!? _(Did you once trust him at one point!?)

"Guys, guys," Buddy butted in with his monotone voice, trying to push the brother and sister apart from their fiery glares. "Let's just drop this, okay?"

Brother tore his gaze from Rikku and nearly burned a hole into the tanned skin of his old partner. "And what you expect we do next, huh?" He inquired in broken English.

"Well…we could always get the Gullwings back-"

Suddenly, the emergency sirens blared throughout the Celsius, colouring the bridge a nice crimson colour. Brother yanked and shoved both Buddy and Rikku out of the way ("Oof! You big meanie!" cried Rikku.), flailing and dancing over to the rusty compartments of computers.

"_Fryd ec ed!? FRYD EC ED!? _(What is it!? WHAT IS IT!?)" Brother squealed in excitement, finally having something worthwhile to partake in. He bounced up and down as he grasped the iron computer seat, laughing like a maniac. Buddy pulled himself up and, keeping his cool like always, walked over to the computer station and brought up the urgent message sent to them.

Just as he was doing that, Paine entered the bridge and leaned on the metal railing, looking at the Al-Bhed trio who were all in completely different positions.

"So we've finally got something," Paine muttered, a rare smile creeping up onto her face.

"Doctor P.!" Rikku laughed, leaping up onto her feet. She ran up the steep entranceway and began to drag Paine by her arm down into the small cluster. "Yep, someone's called us! We're finally gonna go on an adventure again!"

"So I can tell. Funny, I was just about to doze off, too." Paine smirked sarcastically, trying to free herself from Rikku's tight grip.

A few droning moments passed, as Buddy audibly read the message on the screen. Brother was pushing Buddy's head to the side, trying to get a look. Buddy retaliated by slapping his face away, much to the amusement and the silent enjoyment of the two females behind them.

"_To Brother, Buddy, Rikku and Paine of the Celsius:_

_I know that we haven't physically seen each other for a while, but I've just been so busy! Life on Besaid has become so much better ever since we came back from our last mission. I can't believe two weeks have already passed, especially since we still have bonfire celebrations every night!"_

"Oooooohhhh," Rikku groaned, stomping her indigo coloured boots on the steel floor. "Bonfire parties **every night**…why didn't I offer to stay for a little longer?"

Buddy ignored her personal ramblings and continued reading:

"_Anyways, I've been thinking it over for a little bit and…I've decided that I want to get back with you guys for a while. As nice as Besaid is, it does get a little boring after some time. Plus I would really want to travel back to some places for…well, let's just say for nostalgia's sake."_

Brother froze completely. Would it be? Could it be? But…wait; this could just be somebody else. Maybe Calli had come to stay on Besaid, or maybe Clasko had set up a chocobo riding coral there. But then, there were only three people in the Gullwings who actually took part in their last mission…and Rikku and Paine was with him right now.

"_I know most of you guys are probably sceptical about this, but guess what? I think the Gullwings still have some potential to become first-rate sphere hunters; we just need to sign up some more members!_

_Plus, I've gone over this with a…special person. To me, at least. Apparently, he has the same thoughts about the whole, 'Besaid is getting boring' thing, so he wants to become a member of the Gullwings! At least it's a start, huh?_

_Can you fly over to Besaid as soon as you can, please? We'll be at the beach where we…um, you know. We both can't wait to start a new journey toget-I mean, with you guys. Really, I miss the adventures I had with you all. I want to start anew._

_Yours sincerely,_

_Yuna_

"_P.S. Seriously though, come quickly. I think Wakka and Lulu are trying to hunt us down right now."_

A surge of coursing hot blood spanned throughout all of Brother's insides in less than a second. Yuna was….coming back? She was going to…stay with him after all!? A spicy mix of adrenaline had spread through his body as well, making him want to scream and holler as loud as he could in pure joy.

But something was preventing him from showing his bearing grin. In fact, he had gone quieter after the message had been read. That was definitely Yuna, as proven by her cursive signature that had been scanned into the paper, but-

Meanwhile in the background, Rikku was doing what Brother would have been doing: Screaming and jumping around in glee. She sang, 'Yuna's coming back!' in a sing song voice around Paine, who was looking very plain with grains of irritation in her ruby red eyes.

But…who was this, '_special person'_ that Yuna had mentioned? Brother's insides lurched; he had a solid prediction on who he or she was. What was worse was that that person was going to be one of his partners now…right beside Yuna.

"Well Brother," Buddy interrupted his musings, making him jump. "What're you waiting for? You've been going on about her for a long time, and now you're not gonna do anything?"

Brother stared at the tanned smug face just below his crooked nose. Snapping out of his spell, he straightened himself, turned in the opposite direction and rudely cleared his throat to making an announcement.

"E-everyone! We go, uh…to Besaid! Post haste!"

Rikku exploded into a giggling fit and bounced into her seat at the front of the airship. Buddy followed soon after, seating himself on the other side. Brother hesitantly climbed onto the main handlebars of the pilot's seat, as Buddy, for the first time in two weeks, disengaged the autopilot. Paine stood rooted to her spot, crossing her arms in her typical manner.

"Surging Winged Albino Gullwings, move OUT!" Brother declared in a serious tone. His hand recklessly clutched the handlebars as he pointed his finger out into the clouded sky, revving up the engine and speeding forwards.

'_Maybe if I just go somewhere else, I won't have to face that…' _Brother mentally slammed his head into the bulletproof cockpit of the Celsius. Yevon, he was being such a coward! If going to Besaid meant getting Yuna back onto the team, then he certainly wouldn't chicken out because of somebody coming alongside her. Besides, he would hang, draw and quarter himself at the thought of betraying his sweet, cheerful cousin. He was going to Besaid, '_special person_' or not.

* * *

The Celsius was dangerously close to the tropical ocean surrounding Besaid. Every few seconds the shiny metallic arms skipped and splashed into the water. The Celsius was not the most durable airship that the Al-Bhed had tuned up, since one of the engines would always act up every so often, but it was certainly the fastest airship, and therefore the fastest method of travel in all of Spira.

They were closing in on the tiny island of Besaid. Brother, trying to be just a little bit more careful this time around, slammed his thick leather boots on both of the breaks. A gargantuan trail of water exploded behind the Celsius as it stopped just short of Besaid's dry shoreline.

Brother collapsed; sweat dripping down his pale brow as he panted heavily, as if the simple procedure absorbed half of his life energy.

While he was having his melodramatic display, a light pattering of hollow footsteps followed by chuckles of excitement made its way through the back of the bridge. Rikku had ascended onto the hill near the entranceway and pushed a small aquamarine button. This had opened up the hull of the airship.

"You guys wait here, okay? I'll go and bring them in! Just a sec!" Rikku piped, impatiently running on the spot as she waited for the clunky and noisy entranceway to descend. Deciding that she couldn't wait anymore, she did what Yuna herself had done on her last moments aboard the Celsius: Jump about twenty feet from the air and land legs first onto the sandy shores.

Brother climbed out of his seat and headed to the centre of the bridge, just where the sphere oscillo finder was planted. He fidgeted with his Iroquois and paced back and forth, stopping just short of the neon green floorlights that surrounded him.

It seemed like forever when Rikku finally entered the airship again, looking even more peppy than usual. Brother jerked his head upwards and straightened himself. His sister glided down the steel railings, bringing with her-

His cousin Yuna.

"Hey, Brother!"

Brother was paralysed for a second. Was it just him, or did she look even prettier than usual? Her small pink lips were wider, her graceful movements were more relaxed and fluid, her bi-coloured eyes had that extra sparkle in them…Brother shook himself free from his trance, doing the very next that came to mind.

"_Yuuuuuuuunaaaaaa!"_ Brother called, his voice hoarse with emotion. He tried to ran towards her and tackled her into a big bear hug, but Buddy tugged on his shoulder, shooting him a, 'don't do it' glare. Brother was seething and about to go on another of his outbursts. Just for a second, he glanced at his friend to reply with one of his own evil glares, but just as he did that…

"Hey, Brother! How's it goin'? Man, I haven't seen you for a while."

A sudden foreign voice filled his eardrums. It was a certain voice that he hadn't heard for so long. A certain, energetic and cheerful voice which could only belong to a late teenager. He heard dense footsteps and subtle squeaks that could only belong to a pair of sneakers.

A sour feeling spread throughout Brother's gut and his thick blond eyebrows furrowed upwards. He slowly craned his head away from the unreadable expression on Buddy's face and turned to meet his new partner.

It was a male, as he had always feared. But his appearance had only made him more fearful. He was wearing a very colourful uniform which was more asymmetrical than not. He was roughly the same height as Brother, only coming short a few inches of his upper forehead. His skin looked like he had been out in the sun for all of his life, coloured a deep bronze colour, just a few tones lighter than Buddy. His dirty blond hair was spiky and covered most of his face, boring a parting down the middle. His eye shape resembled the top half of a circle, while his eyes themselves were coloured a deep lapis hue, shining with innocent happiness and charisma. He had a wide grin on his face, showing his front two incisors.

Yuna was standing by his side holding one of his hands.

"Ahhhh, so it's you," Buddy spoke up appearing from behind Brother's startled and furious state.

"Good to see you, Buddy," The smiling man raised an arm at him.

Buddy turned towards Brother's scowling face. Brother cast a deadly sideways glance at him, as if trying to turn the two males into stone with the constriction of his pupils alone. Buddy merely sighed at him, casting an arm towards the other male.

"Brother, this is our new member: Tidus."


	2. Coping with a Nightmare

**Ahh, here's the second chapter. This is mostly a TidusYuna-centric chapter. Don't worry, there'll be some action in the next one, I hope. And probably some Tidus-Brother rivalry, at last! (Or rather, Brother bashing. XD)**

**BTW sorry for any mistakes in the last chapter. I was just tired from a looooooonnng day. You know, exams and stuff. I'm also SO sorry for the screwed up Al-Bhed passages. I couldn't work the stupid…translator thingy! I could fix them if I could, but…-ragequit- I'll try and do better this time with both the Al-Bhed and my writing. :S**

**Alright, what's past is the past; let's get on with the story.**

**(Also, Tidus is my favourite character. You mad? :3)**

* * *

**Chapter Two: Coping with a Nightmare**

Brother's pulsating heart skipped a few beats and his skin went ghostly white, thanks to the fibrillation that had bloomed and darted through his blood vessels. His curved jaw slowly began to descend from his twitching upper lip, weird noises which sounded like choking gargles coming from his clogged throat. His leafy green eyes had glazed over from the icy cold highlights, making his sight go blurry in a pitbull's rage.

An eerie and most uncomfortable silence had befallen the bridge as soon as Buddy introduced the new Gullwing to his leader. Rikku coughed up a very quiet and nervous laugh. Paine raised her eyebrows at the dumbfounded leader in curiosity and a trace of guilty enjoyment. Buddy was still clutching onto Brother's shoulder, just in case. Yuna bit the insides of her cheeks as a flow of cold foreboding surrounded her.

Tidus was looking very unwelcome as well, giving off a fake chuckle and tapping his one of his sunny sneakers on the cold metal floor. He awkwardly smiled, albeit sheepishly, and tried to make innocent conversation with his unaccepting boss.

"Uhhh…so, I was talking to your buddy, well…Buddy, and he's pretty nice. I was just gonna see if you would act-"Tidus was cut off by a beastly growl, which came from no other direction but right in front of him.

"_Oui…_(You…)" Brother started, lowering his thick hands from his head and pointing a trembling finger at Tidus's frozen face. "_OUI…_(YOU…)"

"Uh oh…" Tidus muttered, him and Yuna backing up a bit. Had he done something wrong? But…surely Brother would at least have the brain cells to figure out that…and that Brother would have least remembered him, however short their encounters were.

"You stupid troll-brained meanie moron!" Rikku yelled, breaking the tense atmosphere, or in different aspects, increasing it by a lot. "Do you have sandworms for brain cells? He's NOT Shuyin! Buddy even said his real name! Sheesh!"

Tidus blinked sharply. It was as if Rikku could read his thoughts. Shuyin…he knew that name. He knew that name too well. He glanced at his side to look at Yuna. The expression on her face told at least a hundred tales on how to punish her second cousin for letting up that slip. A seamless huff of humid hot air directed his stare back to the wild animal, which was ready to pounce on him.

"_Oui...E femm...E ys cu kuehk du taym fedr oui-! _(You…I will…I am so going to deal with you-!)" Brother seethed in a threatening manner. He cut his sentence short as a burst of rage lunged himself forward, trying to siege Tidus by his collar and throw him into the wall. Yuna screamed, and Buddy just managed to throw himself onto Brother before he could cause any damage. The duo wriggled and writhed on the floor, Buddy trying his absolute best to keep himself on top.

"I…am so sorry…Tidus!" Buddy huffed, trying to keep the squirming and whinnying pilot under his control. "Yuna…show Tidus around…the Celsius. Don't worry, ugh, about Brother! He's just…just…a bit sensitive!" Buddy yelped as Brother's chipped teeth sunk into his chocolate coloured skin.

Rikku glided over and attempted to stop the brawl, but only ended up being knocked away by the flailing arms and legs of the significantly bulkier men. Paine strode over and threatened them with the sharp blade of her withered sword, her failure making her scoff and walk away. Rikku glared at Paine and started towards her, completely forgetting the main event that was taking place.

Tidus stood rooted to the spot, not blinking. He watched with great confusion as Buddy began to punch Brother in the face. A slight tug on his gloved hand made himself aware of a smiling Yuna, who was trying her best not to seem embarrassed. Tidus couldn't help but mimic her actions as he gazed at her.

"Come on," Yuna beckoned, desperately wanting to both leave the scene and to show him around. "Let's leave."

Tidus nodded in response as the couple fled in a few swift motions: They pranced up the entryway, fled through the bridge's automatic doors and skipped through the dimly lit corridor into the elevator.

Meanwhile, Brother noticed the absence of one beautiful lady, and one devil's advocate. He managed to crawl out from under Buddy's abuse with a bloody lip and, pushing himself onto his knees, wailed for the stolen princess.

"_Huuuuuuuu! _(Noooooooo!)" Brother bawled, his arms stretched upwards and his fingers wriggled into claws. "_Yuna! Lusa pylg! _(Yuna! Come back!)"

Everybody else heaved an airy groan, humiliated that they and their new partner had to witness his childish display.

* * *

"So…what was **that** all about?" Tidus raised an eyebrow at his lover, who had to stifle a nervous giggle. They were travelling downwards through the slanted chute on the railed and noisy elevator.

"Brother's just gone a bit crazy being so lonely," Yuna said, trying to sound convincing. "At least, I hope that's the case."

Tidus stared at the burning red lights that lit the narrow chute, still confused about the whole ordeal. "You would think that he would recognise me. It's not every day you see clothes like these in Spira."He snickered, trying to lighten the mood.

"Yeah," Yuna smiled, squeezing his hand. "Don't worry about it; he'll come to his senses. You know how he is!"

Tidus couldn't do anything but laugh, which Yuna copied. He released his grip from Yuna's hand and reached around her back to pull her closer to him. Yuna rested her head on his shoulder, sighing happily. The chorus of the noisy machina was being to slow down, signalling the end of the ride.

"So, where're we going anyway?" Tidus asked, feeling the elevator jolt.

"Nowhere special," Yuna shrugged. "I might as well get the boring part out of the way first."

The elaborate patterns upon the circular doors of the elevator chute opened. Tidus stepped out first, looking curious at the narrow chamber below him. Approaching it, he got a whiff of steam in his cobalt eyes. There was also a stench that was so foul it was tempting him to pinch his small triangular nose. Yuna stepped out afterwards, running down and standing beside him.

"This is the engine room!" Yuna shouted over the noisy contraptions. "Buddy usually comes down here to check on the engines, because one of them always seems to break down!"

Tidus started across the linear pathway, which was incredibly difficult due to the exhaust and the ear-grating noise from the pumps. As he approached the large generator at the end, he tripped over a wooden chest that was clouded by the fumes.

"Woah!" Tidus exclaimed, just managing to catch himself. "What was that!?"

"We keep some spare supplies down here!" Yuna yelled, rushing over to him.

"Why in the engine room?" Tidus yelled back. "Why not somewhere else?"

"Don't ask me, that was Brother's idea!" Yuna shrugged, an expression of questioning upon her porcelain coloured face. "Come on, let's go somewhere else!"

They left and began to travel upwards. The doors opened to a corridor, similar to the one that connected to the bridge. As the couple walked through the entrance, however, Tidus' eyes widened at the sight.

"Woah…" He breathed in amazement, tilting his head upwards. He slowly stepped out unto the brown tiled floors as he scanned the area.

Right in front of him was a huge marble wall, painted with a complicated mural of turquoise swirls and waves. Colourful Al-Bhed banners and flowerpots decorated the foundation of the floor above it. A small table was erected in front of it, lit by a small overhead lamp and holding a collection of champagne bottles, complete with a taken down dart board. To the right, there was a gigantic bar table with four red stools and a white carving in the bar's mahogany material.

"This is the cabin," Yuna introduced, sneaking up behind him. "It's our lounge. It's also where we sleep."

Tidus was still staring at the bar, however. There were two blue amphibian creatures, each wearing a gold-orange open jacket and shorts. They had large round ears and two short antennas. Their eyes were completely black and dashed with a sharp yellow back. Tidus remembered this kind of creature from the Moonflow. They were two Hypellos.

They were also engaged in an activity that made Tidus feel queasy.

"Ahh," Yuna stuttered, keeping her voice low. "That's Barkeep, and the other one is Darling, his girlfriend. We…don't speak of them much."

Barkeep noticed the two humans that had walked him on them, and gently pushed Darling away. "Ahhh, Mish Yoona! How nice to see yoo! And who ish thish yoo have with yoo?"

"Hello Barkeep, hello Darling," Yuna said, trying not to talk to them much. "This is Tidus, our new member."

"Ahhh, the legendadary Shir Teedush!" Barkeep exclaimed, still holding onto his girlfriend to keep himself upright.

"We'sh heard all aboutsh yoo!" Darling chimed in, staring at the blond haired man. "Yoo shlayed Shin, did yoo not?"

"Yeah, but not on my own," Tidus defended, casting a quick yet warm look at Yuna. "Yuna and her guardians did as well. Heck, we all did. If it weren't for that Hymn of the-"

"Didsh I shee yoo look atsh Mish Yoona?" Barkeep rudely interrupted Tidus, who looked a bit irritated.

"It'sh the look of love!" Darling droned dreamily, gazing at Barkeep.

"Justsh like how we first metsh, my Darling!" Barkeep pulled Darling close to her again.

"Oh, you hunkshy man! Come kish me!" Darling flirted as they continued pressing slobbering orange tongue kisses on each other.

Tidus felt like vomiting at the less than endearing display. '_And I thought I saw a lot of gross stuff in this world. I never thought Hypellos making out would make me feel sick out of the bunch.'_

"Let's…go upstairs," Yuna whispered, noting his discomfort. Tidus could have sworn that he saw a blush upon her cheeks. "I'll show you where we'll-uhh, you'll sleep!" Yuna blushed harder at her honesty, confirming his suspicions. He, too, blushed as they ascended the curving staircase to the resting area.

"Shir Teedush, if yoo ever needsh a drink, come to ush!" Barkeep shouted, taking his mind off of Darling for a split second. Tidus ignored the infuriating Hypello as he and Yuna headed up the staircase.

There was a large row of ramped windows that stretched across the second floor. It was nearing nightfall as gold, orange and pink streaks stretched across the navy blue sky, only cut off by a few passing purple clouds. A brilliant yellow sun shone through the windows, giving the cabin and its visitors a relaxing orange glow. Tidus' golden strands of hair also shone more than usual.

On the wall right next to Tidus was a potted plant and a collection of framed pictures. He recognised one of the pictures as Brother's salvage ship, and another of Cid's airship: Fahrenheit.

A puzzled look crossed Tidus' face, then. '_I wonder what happened to that old crappy ship. I kinda miss it.'_

Tidus' ocean gaze started to travel across the west. There was a shelf in front of where the windows were, which held various pots and vases. He noticed that a fan was hanging over the pub area. At the far end, there were two lounge seats with a coffee table in the centre. There were also three beds, covered in ornate blankets, and three bedside tables. Tidus walked across them, but froze when he came across the bed in the middle.

"What's the matter?" Yuna asked as she skipped over to him.

There was a long and very securing glass case tucked away in-between the bed and the far end table. It held a familiar looking sword. Its blade was liquid blue with a receding hook on the end, and its diamond patterned hilt held two long crimson ribbons. The sword was shimmering, giving off a small aquamarine glow that spanned no more than a few centimetres. Tidus bent over it and picked up the glass case, smiling.

"So this is where Brotherhood was," Tidus turned and rose an eyebrow at Yuna playfully. Yuna looked shocked. She didn't remember to tell Tidus about it.

"I-I used it in battle sometimes. With my Warrior dressphere," Yuna stuttered, looking very red in the face.

"Dressphere?" Tidus' eyes went wide as he cocked his head sideways. '_Wow, I really have missed a few things._'

Yuna giggled at his adorable antics. "I'll explain later. Come on, I still haven't shown you the best part!"

Tidus decided it would be best to just leave the encased Brotherhood on top of the blanket for now. Following Yuna, he leapt over the iron railings and landed safely on the carpet. Taking her hand again, they went back to the elevator. Yuna pressed the very top button on the small screen and the lift began to move.

"I'm sorry," Yuna suddenly said, facing and looking up at him. "The cabin's not very good, is it?"

"I think it's awesome," Tidus replied honestly, looking a bit concerned. "You don't need to say sorry for everything."

"Heh, I know," Yuna smiled at him. "I was kidding…sort of. I just wanted to see your reaction!"

Tidus laughed and pulled Yuna in for an embrace. He placed his single gloved hand on her exposed shoulder and his armguard on the lace of her open shirt. "I like this new Yuna. She kinda reminds me of…well, me," He chuckled.

"Yeah…" Yuna trailed off, her head leaning against Tidus' exposed chest. "That's what Brother said."

"Huh?...Yuna?" Tidus pulled back so that he could look at her, worried about her tone of voice. Yuna looked up at him with a sad smile, solemnity in her beautiful bi-coloured eyes.

The elevator came to a halt as the track line ended. A shiny red door with the Gullwings crest on it quickly opened. Tidus and Yuna stepped out as Tidus gaped slightly. They were out on the airship's deck! He was not one to be afraid of heights, but the overly clean surface of the Celsius and the speed it was going at made him feel a bit uneasy.

Yuna gently took him by the hand and guided him to the end of the deck. There was a small silver emblem of a gull in front of them. Yuna kneeled in front of the statue as Tidus followed, their hair whipping backwards from the force of the air. Tidus was still staring at Yuna, when she finally spoke:

"I-I think I know the real reason why Brother…attacked you earlier," Yuna started, a bit hesitant. "It's a bit of a disturbing reason, really."

"Go on," Tidus encouraged her to continue. Yuna went on to tell him about her discovery two weeks ago.

"It was the day where we had our last mission together. It…it was the day when we would defeat Vegnagun and save Spira once again,"

Tidus recalled this, 'Vegnagun' she spoke of. It was on the night of his return, when Yuna told him all that he had missed the past two years.

"I had woken up from my sleep in the cabin, when I heard a familiar voice below me. It was…Brother, and he was talking to Barkeep…about me. I knew I was eavesdropping, but something told me that I had to listen to them,"

Yuna gulped. This was the uncomfortable part.

"Brother…he also liked the new me. He liked the new Yuna I had become. He was…always staring at me when I wasn't looking, and he went on about how he and I would be the perfect two. I knew enough Al-Bhed to know that…he loved me. Romantically."

A few moments of awkward silence passed, the only noise being the wind lashing at the airship. Tidus was still staring at Yuna, as she hid her face from his scrutiny. Finally, he spoke.

"Did…did he really say that?" Tidus bit his lower lip slightly. He took one of his veiny hands and turned Yuna's head to meet his bewildered gaze.

Yuna was genuinely scared of the reaction he could have. Would he not believe her? Would he storm off? Nevertheless, she had to drive herself to tell him the truth. She would never keep another secret from him.

"Yes. He said, '_E muja ran'_ (I love her)," Yuna whispered very quietly. Without thinking, she blurted out her reply to what she thought he would say. "Please don't be jealous! I do love him, but not in that way. You're the only person whom I do truly…"

If Tidus wasn't so bothered, he would have grinned at her show of affection. But he had more…questionable things on his mind.

"I'm not jealous," He confirmed, giving Yuna some relief. However, "But…Yuna, aren't you two…aren't you two **cousins**?! If you're family, and he actually loves you, then-!"

Yuna dived into his arms, not wanting to hear anymore. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry! I really don't like it either! It's my fault; I shouldn't have let my guard down…"

Tidus glanced down at the shaking, fragile woman who was clutching ever so tightly onto him. Even when her will had gotten stronger, she was still the same sensitive girl when it came to her vulnerability. He slowly rested his angular chin on top of her spiky dark brown hair, stroking it and playing with her snake-like ponytail.

"It's my fault," Tidus said. "I shouldn't have brought it up earlier." Yuna removed her head from his torso, twisting her face a little as the heat from his body was replaced by stinging cold wind. She smiled at him, touched that he was willing to take the blame.

"It's okay," Yuna sniffled as she looked up into his lapis eyes. The sun's rays were reflecting a trace of soft gold into them. Yuna noticed that her knees were getting weaker. "Let's just forget about it for now."

"It's really pretty out here, isn't it?" Tidus glanced up at the multi-coloured sky, blends of lights and dark smudging the sky. Sandy cirrus and cumulus clouds dotted the atmosphere as the sunset shimmered on the far horizon. "It kinda looks like…everything's on fire."

Yuna nuzzled her face into the bend of his neck and hummed in contentment, knowing well what he was referencing.

"This is what I wanted to show you," Yuna giggled into the nape of his neck. "Before we got distracted."

"Man, this is awesome," Tidus stepped backwards, holding her by the shoulders. "Maybe this whole, 'sphere-hunter' thing will turn out better after all."

"To be honest, Brother's not that bad," Yuna said, still holding Tidus by the waist. "Then again, I can get him to do anything I want because I'm his favourite cousin." She laughed joyfully, which sent his heart soaring. He had always loved her musical laugh. During the rare times where he would worry about things, all it took was a genuine laugh to fall from her soft voice.

A smile tugged at Tidus' soft pink lips as he looked at his lover, his eyes filled to the brim with affection. He let go of Yuna and removed the simple black glove that he always wore on his right hand. He always did this when he and Yuna were having their peaceful moments together. He cupped her creamy face with his bare hand and watched as Yuna leaned into his palm, purring.

'_Mmmmm, so…warm…' _Yuna hummed, her eyes half shut. In a spurt of love for her perfect dream, she closed the gap between their bodies and pressed her mouth against his. She slid her fingertips over his toned backside as both of his hands clasped her flushed face. Their heads tilted as they welcomed more of each other into their canals, the distant squawks of seagulls and albatrosses high above them.

They were so caught up in their romantic little world that they didn't notice that Buddy had stumbled across them. It wasn't until they heard a deep pitched, 'ahem' that they were being watched. They quickly and reluctantly pulled away from each other, poorly pretending as if nothing happened.

"Oh, hi Buddy!" Yuna coughed, a twinge of both flustering and anger mixed in with her voice.

"Sorry, did I interrupt anything?" Buddy questioned, trying to show little emotion.

"Nah," Tidus lied, scratching the back of his head. Buddy took in that his bright yellow mini-jacket was slightly rumpled.

"Anyways, Brother wants you two to come back to the cabin," Buddy delivered. "He wants you two…or rather one of you, to get some rest."

'_Oh, perfect,_' Tidus thought to himself sarcastically. He and Yuna looked at each other as Tidus rolled his eyes. '_More like he just wants another chance at me.'_

Yuna acknowledged her lover's crystal clear emotions and placed her hand on his shoulder. "I'm sure it'll be fine."

Tidus gave a blank nod as the group of three made their way back into the Celsius.

* * *

Brother was pacing up and down the cabin's main level, his beefy arms thrown behind the thin criss-crossed straps of his suspenders. He was grunting to himself with his overly full lips puckered up in impatience. He stomped out the sounds of the two active Hypellos beside him. Finally, after heavy amounts of seconds, the young couple and their occupier paced through the doors.

"YUNAAA~! Youback, yes!?" Brother bellowed, delighted at the grinning face of his cousin. He glared daggers at Tidus' very faint natural smile before he beckoned them over. "Follow me!"

They headed upstairs to the quaint yet gorgeous resting area, where Rikku was already bouncing around on the bed to the far right. Paine was there too, examining the dull armoured blade that she always carried around.

"Now, you all go to sleep now," Brother commanded in his imperfect English, his eyes closed in a proud manner. "Yuna, you will sleep on the same bed as-"

Brother just noticed, as he opened his eyes, that the young blond and brunette had already scrambled to the central bed, sitting down beside each other as they looked into each other's' eyes. Brother heaved out a very audible gasp, alarming Rikku and Paine as they locked on to the trembling man. Tidus and Yuna jerked their attention back to the very angry teacher, still holding hands.

"NO! NO!" Brother scolded as he fluttered over to the perturbed duo, ramming his fists into his sides so forcefully that he was in immense pain. He ignored this in favour of the blasphemous sight. "_FRYD YNA OUI TUEHK!? _(WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?)"

"We're going to share this bed," Yuna said, trying her hardest to keep her gaze on the overly jealous pilot. She also tried not to be distracted as Rikku began teasing her with an annoying song. "That's what couples do, right?"

"_HUD OUI DFU! _(NOT YOU TWO!)" Brother's loud response was void of any reasoning. "Yuna will sleep on this bed, just the same!"

"What?" Rikku squeaked, hopping off of the blanket next to them. "I told you, leave them alone!"

"And **YOU**..." Brother snarled, forcefully sticking out his finger at the surprised Blitzer looking up at him. His long fingernail was just centimetres away from Tidus' face. "You will be sleeping in the engine room!"

"WHAAAAT!?" Rikku shrilled, tumbling over to her sibling.

"Are you kidding me!?" Tidus yelled, blue electricity sparking from his eyes. He rose and narrowed his gaze at Brother's detestable brow.

"B-Brother!" Yuna piped, following Tidus' actions. "Surely you…you can't be serious?"

"I am most serious, Yuna!" Brother said, weakly shoving Tidus towards the railing. "Go on, blondie! Shoo! Shoo!"

Tidus groaned and kissed Yuna on the forehead, getting a shaky and begrudging reaction from his leader. Tidus turned to the railing and before he leapt over it, he decided to make fun of Brother's hypocrisy.

"Hello pot, I'm kettle! I'll be torturing you because I'm hopelessly in love with my first cousin! By the way, you're black. I hope you die from the heat down in the engine room, sucker!" Tidus mocked, imitating his leader's crowing voice.

Brother howled in pure disgust and hatred. He tried to grasp Tidus by the leg, but he was too nimble for the poorly co-ordinated swings of the Al-Bhed's arms. As he landed on the ground floor, he craned his head upwards to look at the hissing snake peering down at him.

"Hey Yuna, can you at least take Brotherhood down to me?" Tidus asked, although he knew very well what would happen for asking a question in front of his new enemy.

"NO! GO AWAY!" Brother screamed. He tried to grab one of the vases so that he could drop it on the cheeky swordsman's fluffy golden hair, but Rikku and Paine had knocked him down before he could do anything. Yuna leaned over the railing as she watched Tidus approach the exiting door. The two lovers gave each other a small sad wave as Yuna mouthed an apology to him.


	3. Descend! Race for the Sphere

**Guess who makes a comeback in this chapter? :D**

**By the way, thank you for the reviews! Hopefully Microsoft Word doesn't crap out on me with the grammar mistakes again.**

**Nope, no action here. D: But I definitely will have some in the next chapter!**

* * *

**Chapter 3: Descend! Race for the Sphere**

Later that night, Yuna was curled up into her bed, trying to fall into slumber. The sky outside had turned pitch black, accompanied by trails of dark cyan. The cabin was completely dark, save for the dim lights from the floor below. The fan above was foolishly left running, sending slashes of chills up Yuna's body despite her bed's tight covers.

Truth be told, it wasn't the freezing temperatures that was the most of her problems. What happened just an hour earlier had set off a series of chain reactions. Rikku was still screaming and getting up into Brother's equally as energetic phase about his unfair judgement.

"…AND FOR YOU TO JUST SEND HIM DOWN THERE WITHOUT ANY SUPPLIES! WAY TO SET A FREAKIN' EXAMPLE FOR HIS STAY HERE!" Was one of Rikku's many versions of her brother's sentencing. She stomped after him in a neverending circle, constantly tripping over an unseen object thanks to the dark.

"THERE WAS A REASON, RIKKU! I DON'T WANT THAT MAN TO HARM MY YUNA!" Brother had shot back. Before Rikku could respond with an even more aggressive argument, Paine had intervened from her bedside, groaning as she tossed and turned.

"To be honest, Tidus is better off without you two hacking at each other." Paine mumbled.

Yuna had pretended to be asleep for the entirety of the verbal war between her teammates, while really she just wished for the whole situation to end. It wasn't as though she wasn't angry at Brother too, however. If it weren't for her goody-goody nature or her drowsiness, she would've given Brother a good scolding if Rikku wasn't doing so as of now. How could he be so unfair to Tidus just because of her, much less send him to the most dangerous section of the Celsius? Yuna always hated being the centre of attention. This was definitely no exception.

Concerning Tidus, there was a more personal reason as to why she was angry with Brother. After Tidus' revival just two weeks earlier, there was a huge homecoming party thrown in the delicate village of Besaid Island. After the festivities, Yuna and Tidus had snuck away into the Aurochs' hut, plopping down onto one of the grey-white beds. Yuna had cried tears of happiness as they both held each other to themselves, at peace with herself that she had finally been reunited with him. They fell into rest together, and it seemed like only a fleeting moment when next morning, they were awoken by an obnoxious laugh from a certain flame-haired giant. Ever since then, they had fallen asleep and woken up with and beside each other.

And Brother just _had_ to tear them apart. Her one pillar of comfort that had always held her these past moons was now at the opposite end of the ship, probably in the same restless state as she was. She was once again alone, with nobody to nuzzle up to, nobody to keep her warm, nobody to make her feel safe.

Yuna winced. She was being selfish. Two nagging voices were present in her head, one was ashamed with Yuna's self-centeredness, the other was defending her; telling her that it was okay because of all that she went through. Another half-hour had passed, and Yuna had just realised that her cousins' bickering had stopped. Rikku had yanked her covers over herself in a fit of rage, and Brother was lying sprawled out on the couch, snoring loudly.

Yuna clicked her teeth together as she fidgeted with her fingers. Like always, her bombardment of thoughts and musings were keeping her awake. She had always been a light sleeper; blinking her eyes open even at an abnormal drift of wind. No matter how hard she tried, she was yet again reminded of the past two lonely years. It was going to be a long night.

* * *

Tidus certainly did not enjoy his very first night onboard the Celsius, or as he preferred to call, the, 'Fahrenheit II'. Not because he was separated from his wonderful girl whom he always dreamed of on the pilgrimage, not because the Celsius itself nearly killed him just a minute after his return on Besaid, not even because of the red blotched face of his unreasonable new leader whenever he glimpsed at him.

It was because it was bloody _murder_ in here.

Tidus had been unable to get even one wink of shuteye overnight, because a certain somebody didn't even bother to touch down somewhere on the mainland, and therefore kept the engines running all through the thirteen hours he had been down here. For one, it was extremely noisy; more so than even Sin's ethereal screams of dead souls. The engines were also running on a, 'special' type of Al-Bhed gasoline, making the room smell worse than a Great Marlboro. The only reason Tidus was lying on the ground right now was because he tripped over a steam-covered gas pipe and knocked himself unconscious. By the time he came to, he was too tired to even get up on his knees.

So he lay awake all night, crawling away from the machinery area and into the large purple space, anything to get away from the blasted things. He would never have thought he would have so much hate for an array of machina right now, especially machina that powered an airship. He crashed down on his stomach, his arms lying parallel in front of him. The next morning, he had been jolted awake by a blaring red siren, probably signalling that something was up.

"Ughhhh…" Tidus slogged. He pushed himself upwards with his long arms, swinging his legs around to propel himself onto his rear. He clutched and rubbed his face, trying to swat off some of the drowsiness from his complete lack of sleep.

Just then, an inconsistent pattern of footsteps prompted Tidus to look upwards. He resisted the urge to seethe as he saw that his visitor was no other than the man who sent him down here in the first place. He was gripping the metal railing, looking down at him with a drooping jaw and thin green eyes, an almost silent shriek wisped from his mouth.

"Uhh…you okay?" Tidus simply asked, trying to keep his composure calm. Brother soon regained his voice and began to yell at him as usual.

"_OUI YNA TECKICDEHK! _(YOU ARE DISGUSTING!)" Brother slammed his fist onto the metal railing in a fit of rage. "_Muug yd oui! Oui yna rymv-hygat yht ajanodrehk! _(Look at you! You are half-naked and everything!)

Brother pointed a rumbling finger at Tidus' state. There was another downside to the engine room: it was very, _very_ warm. Tidus had to strip down to his mismatched shorts to keep himself solidified. The rest of his attire was piled up beside him, as he himself was drenched in sweat.

"Well I had to keep myself alive somehow, unless you were trying to kill me. That wouldn't surprise me to be honest," Tidus rolled his eyes, dressing himself quickly. Good thing he had studied Al-Bhed, otherwise Brother would have tried to strangle him within the minute. Brother simply huffed and strolled over back to the elevator.

"When you're done, come up to the bridge. I am sure that _many_ people will want to see the return of Tie-du-,"

"It's **Tee**-dus, Brother. I didn't live in the west of Spira," Tidus said, agitated. He had caught up to Brother, fully clothed, hopping into the elevator before him. "Seems like you didn't even listen to Buddy yesterday."

"Only a rebel speaks and acts before their leader like that!" Brother gritted, stomping into the elevator and making it shake. "Now come on! Everybody is waiting because of you!"

Tidus didn't even bother to protest at his infuriating words as the both of them rode up to the bridge.

* * *

Yuna, Rikku, Paine and Buddy were all spread out across the bridge, awaiting orders from their leader on what to do. Tidus arrived first, stepping out from the doors and leaping over the railing. Rikku squealed and ran over to him, glomping him with such force that they almost fell over. Tidus yelped in surprise, Brother did the same as he entered.

"I am **so** sorry!" Rikku sobbed, glaring at her brother who had tried to copy Tidus' actions. "My stupid meanie brother is really all that dense, you know!? I'll make sure he turns off the engines next time!"

"Calm down, Rikku!" Tidus chuckled, a bit embarrassed for the pilot who had chocobos dancing above his head. "So, what're we doing anyway?"

Brother snorted and rolled onto his feet, acting as if nothing had happened. Buddy walked over to Tidus, a small grin on his face.

"You're in luck. We've picked up some sphere waves from Kilika Forest," Buddy said nonchalantly, despite the excitement dwelling underneath. "We'll send down all four of you to hunt for it. Brother and I will check in to see how you're all doing."

"Can't he just be a replacement for Shinra?" Brother moaned, not wanting to send him down with the three girls, especially not with Yuna. Everybody stared at him coldly. "He came from Zanarkand, did he not? He will have most…uhh, ex-pary-an-say with the computer things!"

"'Experience,' Brother," Buddy sighed. Rikku was right; he really was lacking in brainpower. "And no, he's a swordsman. He's better on the battlefield. And no again, Brother; you can't take his place. Hate to say this, but you literally can't fight to save your life."

"_Pid E __**lyh**__ vekrd! _(But I **can** fight!)" Brother whined, getting dangerously close to Buddy, and more so to Tidus. "_So fyo ec zicd tevvanahd! _(My way is just different!)"

Tidus, not wanting to stay near them in risk of getting involved, sneaked away from the argument and headed towards the front of the ship to meet his new teammates. He saw Rikku conversing with an unfamiliar grey haired woman, clad in black leather clothes and silver jewellery. The woman looked past Rikku and made eye contact with Tidus, getting Rikku to notice him.

"Oh yeah!" Rikku jumped out of the way, looking at Tidus. "This is Doctor P! Her real name is Paine, though. We met her one day and encouraged her to join the Gullwings!"

"You mean drag me out of the streets of Luca because you took a liking to me for some reason," Paine tutted, remembering her technical kidnapping. She turned her attention to the blue eyed man front of her. "So you must be Sir Tidus. Yuna's been looking all over Spira for you."

Tidus simply nodded. '_She was searching for me, even though she saw me jump off that day…' _He realised with a pained smile. Speaking of her, he felt a light tap of a pink fingernail on his shoulder. He turned around and saw that Yuna was behind him, carrying his two most important weapons: Brotherhood and Caladbolg. She gave him a shy smile as she tried her best to heave the gigantic blue swords onto his arms.

"I used these swords, so that I…could feel closer to you. When you disappeared, Wakka found these on the shore of Besaid. He gave them to me, and…" Yuna trailed off, looking up at him lovingly. "I don't feel it's right for me to keep them, though. They're your swords, after all."

Tidus looked in amazement at the two blades; one of crystal water and the other of sunny relics. He sheathed them into the quiver on his back and looked at her gratefully. "Wow, Yuna…I really don't know what to say. Thanks."

"When Wakka gave them to her, she actually cried!" Rikku spoke up. "Every day, she would sit down at the beach with them to stare at them, clean them or actually swing them around!"

"Rikku!" Yuna hushed, her face beet red.

"Mind you, she wasn't good at first. She was okay with Brotherhood after a bit, but she almost cut off her arm with Caladbolg! How do you even hold those things, anyway? Let alone pull off all sorts of tricks with them? They're just so huge! And you have like, a hundred more that're the same size!" Rikku babbled on, earning a nervous Yuna and a facepalm from Paine.

"I have my secrets," Tidus teased, his voice an amused tone before changing his direction of attention. "But Yuna…did you really-?"

"Alright, girls! And…guys," Buddy announced, walking over to the group of four. "Brother's finally driving us to Kilika Forest. We'll arrive there in a few minutes. Prepare your Garment Grids and dresspheres, this mission'll get a little tricky."

"We're already prepared," Paine said. Tidus was looking confused, but Yuna reassured him quietly.

"Don't worry," Yuna whispered into Tidus' ear. "We'll show you later."

After several minutes, the group of four had assembled at the middle of the bridge. Through the narrow rectangular windows, they could make out a lining of lush green vegetation, and the horizon of the sea in the far distance. Through the glass of the cockpit, there stood a large intimidating temple perched way up on the hill overlooking the forest. Buddy and Brother stood in front of the group, going over basic procedures.

"…And if one of you falls in battle, don't panic. However, if you find yourself in trouble, run to the nearest Save Sphere you can find. Don't look back, not even if the fiend itself is about to die!" Buddy droned on like a military officer.

"And no lovey-dovey stuff will go on! This is a sphere excavation, not a date!" Brother blurted out, staring at the young blond and brunette standing beside each other.

"Will you just leave them alone!?" Rikku moaned.

"Alright guys, we're ready to roll! I'm teleporting you directly to a clearing in the middle of Kilika Forest. Find that sphere before any others do!" Buddy finished, running over to the Celsius' master system and punching in all sorts of co-ordinates and Al-Bhed code.

"Let's go get that sphere!" Yuna cheered, jumping up and down. She held out a stretched hand and suspended it in midair.

"Y!"

"R!"

"…P,"

"Uhh…T?"

"Let's do it!" Yuna, Rikku and a dull-faced Paine said in unison.

Tidus smirked, him glancing at Paine and vice-versa. He shot a short look at Yuna with an adoring smile. '_She's still so cute and happy after all this time.'_

"Yeah! Let us do it!" Brother declared, striking a pose. "Go Gullwings, go Gullwings, WOO!"

"You're not cheering me on, right?" Tidus scoffed, predicting what would happen.

"Course not," Brother growled, prompting a raspberry from Rikku in reply.

* * *

The party had travelled through the teleportation circuit and appeared in front of a Save Sphere. The humid hot air of the tropical Kilika Forest hit them like a brick wall. The only sounds were the rusting of the tree leaves, the exotic birds and mammals scuttering through the vines and tree trunks and the distant chatters of the inhabitants of Kilika Village.

"Woah…" Tidus exclaimed, looking all around him. "Haven't been here in a long time."

A sudden beep from his left ear alerted Tidus. He had been given a small black earpiece for a reason that Tidus didn't know. He suddenly knew why thanks to the familiar funny voice that had been the antagonist of his short stay here.

"_I am dead serious, you know! One move on my Yuna and you will regret ever coming here!"_

An ear-piercing scream interfered with the signal, making it crackle. Buddy had knocked Brother out, or at least pushed him out of the chair. A different and much more tolerable voice was speaking to Tidus.

"_Sorry about that, but anyway, Buddy here. The earpiece I've given you is so that we can – and you can – make contact with us. Your other members also have this earpiece. If you're in an emergency, and I mean only an emergency, activate the earpiece and call for help. We'll try and track you down. When you have received the sphere, you must call us. That way we can come and pick you up without any trouble. The Save Spheres are quite ancient machina, so they can sometimes fizzle out when contacting the Celsius from far distances."_

"Can this earpiece make contact with the team members?" Tidus asked, not noticing Yuna sneaking up behind him. There was a small delay before Buddy answered.

"_Ahh…no, actually. We had planned to implicate that feature, but only Shinra could do that. Shinra had technically left the Gullwings before we faced off against Vegnagun, but it wasn't until after that he actually left the ship. He'd been called to participate in Rin's new project to extract energy from the Farplane. We haven't heard from either of them since, though."_

"Hey, who's Shinra, anyway? Some Al-Bhed guy?" Tidus asked again.

"_I'll tell you later." _There was a pause before Buddy started talking again. "_What matters now is that all of you find that sphere! The vegetation seems to be interfering with the density of the sphere waves, so I can't give you any clues as to where it is. You'll just have to search all of Kilika. Even if the sphere is junk, as least we've finally got back into business, yeah? I'll meet you all later. Buddy, over and out."_

The group's earpieces crackled and went silent. The airship above them flew out of sight, exposing the group to the blazing sunshine. The next Tidus knew, a pair of arms encircled his waist. Rikku was laughing giddily in the background as a familiar body of skin leaned against his back.

"Yuna," Tidus chuckled, stroking her hands with his own. "We can save this 'til later. Brother'll not be happy."

"Don't care," Yuna smiled, releasing him and stepping backwards. "He can't watch us."

They laughed together in harmony as they turned and embraced each other. Rikku squealed a little, sporting a grin. '_They're sooooo cute together!' _Paine just sighed a little, butting into the sweet moment.

"We're supposed to be looking for a sphere, remember?" Paine reminded them blandly. "Keep this up and some other guy will find it."

"Oh, right!" Yuna stuttered, backing away from Tidus hesitantly, though she was still smiling. "Where should we go first?"

"How about the village?" Rikku suggested, tripping over to the southern crossroads. "We could show Tidus how much it's changed, or how Dona and Barthello's doing, or-!"

Paine scowled, making Rikku get straight to the point.

"O-or we could look there for the sphere, first!" Rikku whimpered, her legs shaking.

"Sounds good to me," Tidus shrugged, his arm still around Yuna. "Maybe the guys know something. Besides, I've only been to Luca, but not Kilika for a while."

Paine smirked, striding past Rikku and towards the gates of Kilika Village. "Sir Tidus catches on quick, I presume. You could learn from him, Rikku."

"Oooh! That's so not true! I'll let you know that I drove a broken down airship once, and he only drove a jet ski! I'm also of Al-Bhed descent, and therefore…"

Tidus and Yuna laughed as Paine and Rikku trailed towards the village, Paine not even acknowledging Rikku's ramblings. They looked at each other one more time as they, too, followed the lead hand in hand.

* * *

"My, my, my, you certainly have grown, **Sir** Tidus. More angular, taller, less moronic skin colour…"

The group had unfortunately stumbled across Dona's hut whilst they were touring the seaside village. Despite three of the members' protests and excuses, Yuna was definitely not one to pass by a friend's house without saying hello, especially not a former summoner friend. Tidus often wondered how Yuna could be so tolerant of others, especially a cocky, arrogant, thinly clothed lady who often made fun of her quantity of guardians back then.

"Thank you, Dona," Tidus languidly said, feigning kindness.

"So, Lady Yuna," Dona acted surprised to see her, that awful smug look on her face. "I suspect that he's your boyfriend, now? I must admit, I did kind of see that coming."

"W-well…yes, he is …" Yuna faltered, exposing her weakness to the raven-haired lady.

"It's just…all those secret, subtle glances you would give him, how you would oh-so-quietly mutter his name once in a while…When we crossed paths yet again later in our pilgrimages, I would catch just a little peek at your dreaming, trance-like state whenever he was…"

"Stop! Please!" Yuna begged, her skin as hot as the sun. "I-it wasn't like…"

"Oh, really?" Dona condescended. "What about those past months, cooped up away in your little Besaidian hut, crying your eyes out and having nightmares about some sweet yellow boy wilting away before your eyes?"

"Shut up," Tidus growled, standing in front of his trembling lover. "This's none of your business. Do you see what you're doin' to her?"

"My, you're feisty," Dona scoffed, laughing emptily. "Still the same old Tidus, getting worked up about every little thing. Instead of rational thinking, getting angry at everything seems to be your answer. I'm guessing that came from your _daddy issues_, yes?"

"How do you know all about that!?" Tidus yelled, ready to unsheathe one of his swords. "And why is it your concern, you snarky little-!"

"Language, Tidus, language," Dona sighed, making note of the peeved individuals taking up the space in her humble abode. "You really **are **just like your father. I met him once, twelve years ago. He was incredibly drunk and threw up all over my bed. Lord Braska apologised profusely, while Sir Jecht just cursed and cursed, never taking the responsibility."

Noticing that this didn't make the situation any better, Dona resorted to the main question at hand.

"But I digress. Since you really want to know how I got the information because, you know, I live here of all places, I made a few friends who had somehow retrieved the information from your airship's database. It contained Yuna's diary entries, saved spheres, etcetera." Dona smiled as she glanced upwards. "In fact, they're here right now. Must be sphere hunters, they're looking for one."

Rikku gasped, jumping up from her crouched position. "Now wait a minute! How did somebody hack into the database!? We've never been broken into before!"

"Remember that one time, when that broken sphere got stolen, and we went to go get it back?" Paine brought up, looking as bored as ever. Yuna and Rikku both made noises, while Tidus decided to listen in on them.

"Goodness, no! Please, don't let it be…" Yuna groaned, stepping backwards towards the doorway flap.

"Why!? Why and how did you make friends with those…meanies!?" Rikku screamed at Dona, trying to peep up at the second floor from the bottom of the spiral staircase.

"Oh, I just took a liking to them. Very like me. Very well clothed, as well," Dona simply stated, which made Rikku gag. "I'll call them down for you, just so you can meet them."

Dona wolf whistled, ignoring Rikku's poor attempts at pushing over the taller woman.

"Barthello! Please bring them down here."

"Right away, Dona!" Replied a very heavy voice.

From the staircase descended a pale, chubby yet muscular man dressed in Kilika attire. With him, he brought down three people whom were all very shocked to see their rivals. One man was tall and very thin, dressed in dark blue robes and wielding two silver guns. The other man was short and very fat, dressed in mostly purple and carrying a ginormous shield on his back. In the middle was a blonde haired woman with deep purple eyes, wearing a very open kimono that left almost nothing to the imagination, sporting a red heart tattoo in the middle of her torso. She held a fan as she gracefully pattered on the squeaky staircase, despite the scorching flames within her irises.

Tidus cocked his head to the side in confusion, while Rikku's jaw was slack and Yuna had her hands to her mouth. Paine looked mildly interested at the familiar punchable faces of her nemeses.

"LEBLANC!?" Rikku snapped, alternating her gaze between Dona and the lively trio before them.

"What a coincidence…" Yuna breathed.

Leblanc screamed and flew down the stairs and into Dona's face, completely malicious against her.

"WHAT HAVE I TOLD YOU ABOUT LETTING THEM KNOW!?" Leblanc shrieked, making Tidus' ears ring. To him, her voice sounded like a cackling witch. "I WAS GOING TO GET THAT SPHERE, FOR ONCE! I WAS!"

Dona merely snickered at her hysterical nature. "I was never one to keep a promise, you know I can't stall them forever."

"GAHHHHH! SO I GAVE YOU THAT INFORMATION FOR NOTHING!? YOU'RE SUCH A SKANK!" Leblanc continued, stomping her feet repeatedly.

"Look who's talking, ma'am." Dona muttered, pointing at her exposed chest.

"I…I…D'AH! Huff…" Leblanc gave up, her head hanging and her hands clenched. "I guess we'll just have to have a race, then…"

Leblanc stuck her head up in the air and started towards the door, her two henchmen following her. She whipped her traditional geisha styled haircut around to meet her old rivals.

"We'll see who gets that sphere first, loves," Leblanc challenged, ready to sprint. "You three might've fooled me in the past, but nobody outsmarts the mighty Leblanc for long!"

With that, she flew out of the hut, Ormi and Logos calling after her. Rikku slumped down onto the ground again, Yuna drooping her head. Tidus looked even more confused, and decided to question them about it.

"Uhh, who's Leblanc? And who were those two weirdos beside her?" Tidus asked Yuna, feeling a sense of déjà vu. It was much like how both Lulu and Wakka explained the world of Spira to him during the pilgrimage.

"Leblanc is also a sphere hunter. She's our biggest rival. Those two guys were Logos and Ormi." Yuna explained with a faint smile.

"L's the thin one, O's the fat one," Rikku giggled, but with a trace of venom in her tone.

"Right," Tidus nodded blankly. "So I guess she's after the sphere, too?"

"Duh! Of course!" Rikku blurted in annoyance. "And she was hoping to get Dona to keep us here so that she could get a head start!"

"In exchange for my secrets," Yuna rolled her eyes, displaying a rare batch of anger for the two women. "Thanks a lot."

"No problem, High Summoner," Dona mocked, feeling superior. "Don't worry, I promise I won't share. That's just with me, now. Leblanc never bothered to read it, she just wanted my help."

"You just said you could never keep a promise!" Rikku whined, playing with her braids.

"Correction: Never **was **one to keep a promise," Dona said, acting proud of herself. "Now run along. Leblanc's probably halfway through the forest by now."

Yuna gasped and began to drag Rikku and Tidus along with her. She stopped and swooped around, her face red and swollen up. "You **did** stall us!"

Dona laughed loudly, subconsciously leaning into Barthello. "You see that, big guy? I kept my promise after all."

Yuna hissed softly to herself and stormed out of the hut, a look of revenge set on her brow. Rikku chased after her whilst Tidus and Paine shrugged to themselves, following the energetic duo at their own pace.


	4. A Temple Worth Saving

**I know, I know. More than ten thousand words and not one real action scene. I'm so sorry; I just don't know when to stop with the details and the dialogue! .**

**I think you'll get a little surprise from our cheerful, laid-back Tidus in this chapter. Prepare your flame mail!**

**Special thanks to Lightningpanda, GinghamCheck and the others for the reviews!**

* * *

**Chapter 4: A Temple Worth Saving**

To say that the inhabitants of Kilika Village were shocked to see their legendary High Summoner, let alone see her act like a kettle shooting out steam from its spout, is definitely an understatement. They had recalled the horrific memories of a few weeks before, where many peoples' families were left to fend for themselves in the deadly Kilika Forest, and all because of the two major parties': the Youth League and New Yevon, growing hatred for each other. Lady Yuna herself had come to Kilika to resolve the matter once and for all, and for that, they couldn't thank her enough.

And now their very saviour, the one who had saved Spira from eminent destruction for the second time now, was dashing past them all with a glint of madness and determination in her periwinkle eye. They muttered and whispered to each other as Yuna came to a stop at the exit of the village, her posture stiff and flinching.

"Yuna, wait!" Rikku called, finally catching up to the fuming Yuna just in front of the village gates. She was panting and heaving, hunched over the wooden boards that kept the village levitating over the sea.

Yuna sighed heavily as she turned to face her younger cousin, her face still a mediocre red. Her expression was full of guilt and lingering anger. "I'm sorry. I don't know what came over me."

Rikku was beginning to get annoyed, too. She pouted as she lightly pressed her feet against the surface of the boards. "Yunie, you apologise too much! That Dona's a big meanie. I'd be even madder if I were you!"

"Just…her and Leblanc…why and how did they...?" Yuna croaked to herself, earning an awkward moment of meaningless sounds from Rikku. Her thoughts were interrupted by an ambient signal in her left ear. She pressed two fingers to her ear canal and was penetrated by a very loud and anxious Al-Bhed.

"_YUNA! Are you okay!? My specialised emotion reader tells me that you're about to cry!"_

Rikku almost barfed in frustration. Hastily, she pressed two fingers to her earpiece and began to shout just as loudly.

"She's **fine**, Brother!" Rikku scolded. She could hear a yelp and a hard, solid thump. "And what's this, 'specialised emotion reader' thing? Something you forced Shinra to make!?"

"_How many times must I tell you? Do not talk to your brother like that! Vydran (Father) will not be pleased! As for that, I am just protecting Yuna! It's something I made myself!"_

"There's a difference between, 'protecting' and, 'stalking'!" Rikku lectured. "Now leave us alone! We're gonna go look for that sphere! Gullwings, over and OUT!"

There was a hoarse squeak of protest before Rikku disconnected, Yuna doing the same. She was watching Rikku with a slightly disturbing air around her. Was it just her, or was Brother giving more direct attention to her than usual? Her returning, bringing along a very unwelcome Tidus, had seemed to ignite something inside of her eldest cousin. And frankly, Yuna was not comfortable with this.

Speaking of that young man, he and Paine had emerged from behind the two relatives. They were both looking quite intrigued as they had overheard the frightening interruption from their leader. But while Paine was more on the amused side, Tidus was looking a bit more curious. His wide-eyed expression followed by the smallest frown on his face said it all.

Rikku slid over to Paine, dragging her away by her lower arm to the opposite end of the gates.

"Ooooh, that brother of mine gives me the boils, you know!?" Rikku ranted, releasing Paine's throbbing arm. She looked incredibly bored, as if she had already heard Rikku's complaints about Brother about a million times, which was partly true. "Some nerve he has, butting in like that! You know, I have a hunch that he's just getting more and more unbearable by the second…!"

While Rikku went on and on to Paine, or rather, herself, as Paine was just analysing the sharpness of her incredibly grim-looking sword, Tidus' eyes were still locked onto Yuna's. He made his way over to her, arms hovering behind his head, stopping just short in front of her.

"You okay?" Tidus asked with honesty in his tone. "You look kind of…"

"I'm sure it's nothing," Yuna laughed falsely, her body swaying slightly. "C'mon, let's claim that sphere, wherever it is!"

"Besides," Paine calmly said, holding her sword backwards in her gloved right hand, Rikku skipping over after her. "Leblanc and her goons are probably scanning the entire island right now. They may be wusses, but they're not completely useless."

"Well, what're we doing just moping around!?" Rikku bounced over to the guards, whom immediately pushed open the gates. Rikku set off down the gritty dirt road, leading into the dark overpass. "Let's just go already!"

The remaining trio looked at each other for a second, before they, too, set off towards the depths of the island, the guards bowing down to them as they crossed the border.

Meanwhile in the shadows, a woman with a purple flare coat was sandwiched between two men, one thin and one overly bulky, as they stealthily yet quickly rolled out of the village as the guards locked the gates. Holding a finger to her lips and giving out a harsh hiss, they crept over to a suspicious little mound in the grass and stepped on it, enveloping them all in a digital vortex before they disappeared.

* * *

"So, who was that, 'Leblanc' woman?" Tidus questioned, looking at Yuna who was walking beside him. The group of four had explored the vast majority of the forest, swatting and swiping away any miniature fiends that tried to assault them. They were nearing the ancient Kilika Temple's staircase as they dodged between ferns and jagged ivy.

"She's a sphere hunter, and also our biggest and, well, only rival," Yuna explained, almost cutting herself on a piece of stray bark. "She has an entire syndicate dedicated only to hunting spheres. We did become allies for a short while because of Vegnagun's discovery, but it seems like we're back to normal again."

"Sheesh, a whole syndicate?" Tidus exclaimed. "She must really like the business, huh?"

"Pfft, not really!" Rikku rolled her eyes, storming through a bog of weeds as she looked at them. "The only reason she became one was to impress her, 'Noojie-Woojie'! Ugh! The things she would go through for that meanie!"

"She means, 'Nooj'. The leader of the Youth League, remember?" Yuna whispered to Tidus, who half-nodded automatically. He had remembered him from Yuna's recounting of her adventures. The days when he…wasn't here. He had been possessed by the tortured soul who looked very much like himself. Tidus cringed. '_I knew he was bad news the moment I saw him…'_

As Paine cut down a seemingly thick wall of reeds with one swipe of her blade, the group stepped out into the open. There beheld a dizzying flight of limestone stairs which fought off the overgrown greenery engulfing it. A circular plaza with Yevon's sigil engraved into it was built in at the top, which acted like an outlook for the entire island. Even higher up than the plaza was the graceful Kilika Temple itself; former home of Ifrit, the Fire Aeon. A thin veil of clouds shrouded the temple. Could this be where the sphere was located?

"So…who wants a race to the top?" Rikku challenged, leaping in front of the staircase and glancing at her teammates.

'_Well, this brings back memories…' _Yuna smirked inwardly. She nodded as she crouched in front of the first steps, shifting into position. Rikku hollered before she turned back to the remaining candidates.

"Doctor P, Ti, you gonna join in?" Rikku adorned that irritatingly cute smile of hers. She was still dancing, rooted to the spot.

"Sure, why not?" Paine sighed, standing beside Yuna looking as stoic as ever. Tidus had to stifle a chuckle. She was just like Auron, only just a little bit less grumpy.

"I guess I could use a little action," He grinned, kneeling on the little patch of dirt just before the steep climb. "But I'm warning you, I've gotten faster."

"Tch, show, don't tell! We've gotten faster, too!" Rikku taunted, sticking her tongue out. "Hey Paine, count down for us, will ya?"

Paine blinked, but rather in an expecting and disapproving way. "Okay, fine. Five, four-,"

"Three-two-one-GO!" Rikku burst out, instantly taking off and ascending the stairs as she giggled childishly.

"Hey! Wait!" Tidus and Yuna yelled at the same time as they both took off. Paine, not wanting to waste her breath after all, ascended the stairs slowly and carefully.

Rikku panted and huffed as she tried her best to get to the plaza first. Despite her unfair head-start, Tidus had managed to overtake her, resulting in a loud protest from Rikku. He laughed triumphantly as he skimmed past her and lightly jumped onto the hard stone surface of the plaza, Rikku following soon after, looking very red and bloated.

"That's not fair!" Rikku whined, clutching her throat with both of her brown fingerless gloves. "You used a Haste spell! That's cheating!"

"I didn't use any spells!" Tidus defended, still breathing quite calmly. "I won, fair and square."

"Hmph! _Sayhea!_ (Meanie!)" Rikku blew a raspberry in response and stormed away, heading towards the direction of the temple. Tidus laughed at her melodrama. '_Same old Rikku; never likes to lose.'_

"Guys! W-wait!"

Yuna was nearing the top of the stairs, her arms swinging weakly from exhaustion. Tidus turned around just in time to hear her scream. She had tripped on a chipped off portion of the very last step and was plummeting towards the hard cold cobblestone.

"Yuna!" Tidus yelled, sprinting over to her as fast as a bolt of lightning. He had just managed to reach her in time as he forcefully pulled her to him, Yuna balancing on the tip of her knee-high boots. She clung to him as her heart jolted sourly, as Tidus stood straight and placed her on her feet.

"You okay?" Tidus said quietly.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Yuna breathed, half-distracted by the position she was in. "I was just a little careless…"

Her voice seemed to have escaped her throat the longer she held onto him, and the longer he held onto her. She couldn't help it. Time seemed to sluggishly pass by as they gazed at each other. Their faces, only a few inches away from each other, tilted and moved forward, unbeknownst to them. A pair of smiles radiated from them, both making the other grow wider…

"Just so you two know, there's no sphere in this place," Paine snapped them out of their captivation as they looked behind themselves. "Rikku's probably crying because she's alone at the temple."

The two lovers blinked and quickly, yet reluctantly stepped away from each other. They both went red in the face; half from being so close to each other and half from Paine's amusement boring its way into their tempers. They'd been so drawn into each other that she took the time to search the area, yet she didn't interfere with them until now. Paine definitely wasn't one to giggle or gossip behind a couple in their perfect moments, but rather she would leave them be, and when they were supposed to be in a hurry, she would boldly cut into them with random emotions.

"Come on," Paine beckoned as she strayed towards the extra flight of stairs that led to the temple. "If Brother was here, he'd have separated you two with a cannonball twenty seconds ago."

'_More like just hit me with it...'_ Tidus' eyes darkened as he conjured up the gruesome mental image.

He glanced at Yuna one last time, and found her staring back. A smile dimpled his face as he rubbed his head with subtlety. He nodded his head towards where Paine was heading and walked away, noticing that the air felt more hot and stuffy.

* * *

"Where were you!?" Rikku screamed, dashing out from the middle of the temple's garden. "I thought you got mauled by a fiend back there!"

"And you weren't going back to check?" Paine muttered as she walked by the hysterical Al-Bhed.

"Well, I, uh…Be quiet!" Rikku retaliated with multiple expressions, standing behind Paine as she approached the temple. "Where're Yunie and Tidus?"

Paine simply pointed behind her as the aforementioned couple came running up the last batch of stairs. As Rikku was spilling out her relief and irritation, they looked up at the very place they hadn't gone to together since two years ago, the former home of Lord Ohalland. It still had the incredibly abstract design; rusted pipes with two towers sticking up behind the entrance, a flame of Ifrit's blazing soul ignited on both of them and emerald green bubbles which reflected the light. They were standing in the middle of the small theatre, their eyes locked onto the gigantic door that led to the interior.

It was then Yuna realised that the guards that normally watched over the temple, weren't standing at their posts.

"So I guess the sphere's in there somewhere, right?" Tidus thought out loud, which seemed to pull Rikku out of her tension. "So we just go through the place until we find it?"

"Pretty much!" Yuna confirmed, seeming to accept Tidus' basic plan. "It's been a long time, though. Are you sure you remember the paths and all?"

"Oh, I remember," Tidus mumbled lowly, his eyes showing flashbacks. "I **really** remember."

Yuna giggled as she stroked his back. "It was kind of nice, though. How you went through with it…" She had always thought that Tidus had decided to push his way through the Cloister of Trials again, just so that he could see her. However, Tidus hadn't told her the real reason. While it was true that he did want to see her, Dona and Barthello had pretty much forced him into going through with it. To this day, he still had a grudge against them for smudging his name even more.

Suddenly, they heard a series of sounds coming from the temple which caught the attention of the four sphere hunters. The noises were quite faint, but they seemed to be of a wide variety. There was a sort of distorted zoom and then a whirr of what sounded like machina. As quickly as the sounds came, there was another one; a much louder one. There was a female shriek which made everybody but Paine jump out of their skin. Then there were voices.

"YOU BUMBLING LARD OF SHOOPUF DIETS! You almost dropped the thing on me!"

"Sorry, boss! It's just so **heavy**..."

"Quit your whinging and just put the sphere on it! Logos, how're the guards?"

"Safe and snug in their ropes, boss."

Rikku gasped. Not one, not two, but three at once. One, those voices definitely belonged to Leblanc and her two cronies. Two, they seemed to have sieged the sphere before they did, for once. Three, she, too, had noticed the suspicious absence of guards. And by the sounds of it…Leblanc must have broken into the temple.

Unfortunately, her tendency to overreact at everything seemed to have alerted Leblanc and her gang about their presence, as there was a silence followed by a wild scamper across a cobblestone floor. Paine looked at Rikku like she wanted to roast her over a fire. Tidus smacked his forehead with his gloved hand. Yuna, however, crossed the short distance to the main temple door. It was slightly slanted, indicating that it was open.

"Come on! We have to stop them!" Yuna yelled to the group, looking worried.

Tidus rushed over at once, he and Yuna attempting to push open the overly heavy door. Paine dragged Rikku along by her bicep, her knuckled sharp grip digging into Rikku's sensitive skin. She whimpered and squirmed from the pain. They managed to separate the door from the walls so that a wide enough gap was present. Preparing their weapons, they walked casually into the temple.

The foreboding chamber of Kilika Temple was as dimly lit and warm as Tidus remembered. Banners of Yevon were still draping from the brown-orange walls beside the balcony that led to the Cloister of Trials below. Shimmering fires were crackling away all around them. Yet, something seemed a little off. The doors that connected the main room to the resting areas all seemed to be firmly locked and the airy whispers of the hollow chamber seemed amplified. There, just on top of the Yevonite symbol in the middle of the room, laid a small golden sphere, its contents glistening off the faint lights.

"Look! The sphere!" Rikku cheered, before Paine sharply pulled on her shoulder.

"Honestly, are you really that forgetful?" Paine rolled her eyes, shifting her blade. "It's a trap. Why would it be just sitting there, with nobody else around, when we clearly just heard those goons in here?"

"Well, it's the sphere! The thing we've been looking for this past hour!" Rikku argued.

"Gah! Darn it! Seems like you've gotten smarter…"

Three people dropped down from the pitch black ceiling in front of the dormant sphere. One man landing silently on his feet, the other man tumbling down and landing on his stomach. The third person, a lady, jumped down onto the second man's oversized shield and performed a somersault onto the ground, whipping out her white and purple fan.

"I must say, our encounter earlier was unexpected!" Leblanc chortled, straightening herself and treading cautiously towards her rivals. "There I was, making fun of that Barthello guy, and then you girls had to drop in and force me on my feet sooner than I had planned!"

"What were you doing, Leblanc!?" Yuna spoke up, trying to discard her kindhearted traits.

"Yeah! We heard noises in here!" Rikku chimed in, twirling her blades in her fists. "And how did you find that sphere so fast!?"

Leblanc glared at the mound of gathered flesh behind her before she explained her plan. "Oh…Ohohoho, how curious of you! Well, when I was lounging about in that twerp Dona's hut, seeing you in action made me change my plans somewhat. You see, I had my goons sneak onto this island and install a secret teleportation system that takes me to any big part of Kilika. Only I and my closest…friends, know of this!"

"W-what!? Teleportation system? That is so. Not. FAIR!" Rikku cried, feeling urges to lash out at her opponent.

"Hush, you!" Leblanc seethed. "Anyways, when I teleported to this temple, I had managed to find the sphere straight away. Normally I would just get out of here now that I had it, but I decided to do something more…fun. We would set the sphere in plain sight, easy for grabs, and then **boom**! A giant machina sprouts from the ground and proceeds to pummel you all into little pale pancakes! I have it set up, actually, but the gothic one over there seemed to know better! Hmpf!"

"To be honest, you aren't exactly the best at juxtaposition." Paine said flatly.

"However, to actually get this _wonderful and immaculate masterpiece_ of a plan into construction, I had to do a little…spring cleaning. Using our _perfect_ stealth techniques, we tied up all of the guards and threw them somewhere into the rooms over there. They're all probably crying for their _mommies_ right now, as this vicious machina will probably all crush them in the soon-to-follow avalanche of rubble!"

The Gullwings exclaimed as Yuna genuinely scowled. "You can't do this! This is a temple, one of the sanctuaries of Spira! What are you thinking!?"

"Oh, please!" Leblanc scoffed, as she partly hid her face with her fan. "The days of summoning are **long** over, love. This is the new Spira! We must move on, after all. Summoners are worthless memories now. It'd be better if they just took down this place to make room for more _useful_ things, that's all!"

There was a deathly silence. Rikku was gaping like that of a fish, her fingers almost letting go of the blades she held and her back hunched against the wall. Paine was looking shocked, too, but more of an absolute furious kind of shock. Yuna looked like she had died and turned into the pale image of a ghost, her hands trembling and her heterochromic eyes welling up with bitter tears. But worst of all, Tidus, who had mostly lingered in the shadows, was bubbling with pure anger and hatred for the young woman in front of them. A dark veil covered his face as he leapt in front of Leblanc.

"What the hell did you just say?" Tidus muttered, venom seeping into his normally light and cheerful voice.

Leblanc made a noise as she looked up at the slightly taller man in front of her, before realisation hit her. "Hold on, love…you're that Sir Tidus person, right?"

"Don't you dare change the subject!" Tidus growled, holding the long blade of _Brotherhood_ just short of Leblanc's neck. The hue of his eyes changed from a gentle, ocean blue into a startling periwinkle colour; a colour that told tales of pain and revenge. "How dare you talk of the temples that way!"

Leblanc could have sworn that she felt herself cower in a state of helplessness, but she pressed on. "B-but it's true, isn't it? Sin's gone, the Eternal Calm's here, a-and-!"

"Let me tell you something, _Leblanc,"_ Tidus spat out in a tone that almost made him seem like a completely different entity. He lowered _Brotherhood_ slightly, just slightly, incase Leblanc tried anything. "Yeah, the Eternal Calm's here. Everybody's free, everybody's happy, everybody's having the time of their lives. I've been to Luca and saw lots of smiling faces everywhere, and I couldn't help but smile, too. After all, I was the happiest man in Spira, finally finding the place where I belong…"

Tidus seemed to have distracted himself, his gaze faltering as he reminisced for a few sweet seconds. But no sooner than that, he had shot back to his intense, malicious glare, which made Leblanc flinch.

"However," Tidus rose. "Just because we're in this future, doesn't mean we should forget the past! How many summoners worked all their lives just to get rid of Sin for a measly ten years? **Sin**. Do you know how many lives it had ruined? Perhaps it killed your entire family, just like it killed Yuna's, and how it destroyed my entire homeland! Do you know how much Yuna missed out on? Literally training to _die_. What about her father? And the summoner before that? And before that? And before that!? _I'm not gonna stand here and hear someone like you talk so lowly of people like Yuna, let alone make her cry like that! And I'm certainly not gonna let you knock down one of the temples just for your entertainment! You're no better than that lie that was Yevon! You miserable, insensitive, heartless little __**JACKASS!**_"

Tidus' voice echoed throughout the room, making even the crackles of the flames and the ghost of the air fall silent. Leblanc's legs fizzed into jelly and she fell down on the cold hard floor in pure, unadulterated fear. This was somebody she definitely didn't want to tick off.

Tidus breathed heavily as the shadows on his face lifted a little. He whispered ever so boldly, "Do you get it?"

"L-Logos…Ormi…Help me…!" Leblanc whimpered painfully, curled up into herself.

"Y-yes, Boss!" Logos and Ormi obeyed shakily, feeling equally as inferior as their fair lady. They hurriedly scrambled over to her and picked her up, not even daring to look up at the man that stood before them. They slithered off into a secret wall as Tidus watched them, Leblanc explaining their actions.

"I-I'm sorry! Really! T-take the sphere! I don't really need it anyway! There're lots of other spheres out there anyways! Heheh…heh…" Leblanc stuttered weakly and awkwardly, before they disappeared behind the shifting disguised wall next to the chamber entrance.

* * *

Tidus groaned, raising a hand to his face, thinking over his past actions. '_What the heck did I just do? I just…Wow. That so wasn't like me.'_

Shaking his head, he slowly turned to the company behind him, bracing himself. The three girls behind him were all similar in reaction.

"Holy moly, Tidus…Wh-how…Wha-!" Rikku was completely lost for words. She was crouching down on the wall, holding her knees while she gawked.

Paine showed a very rare pair of wide eyes. Her ruby red orbs had paled somewhat, and her lips were slightly parted. "…I'm actually pretty impressed."

Paine was holding onto Yuna, probably trying to calm her down. She stared at Tidus with an indescribable look on her face, her cheeks previously stained with tears. Without warning, a trembling smile shot across her face as she broke free from Paine's arms. She dived into him, holding him so tightly without mercy. Tidus formed incoherent words before he returned the embrace.

"Oh my Yevon…Tidus, I…I can't thank you enough!" Yuna cried, nuzzling her head into the bend of his neck.

Tidus laughed. "I thought you'd be kinda mad, how I just…roared like that."

"Are you crazy? Of course I'm not mad!" Yuna whispered, nibbling his neck affectionately. "I never knew you cared that much."

Tidus simply smiled and kissed the top of her head. Rikku jumped around in joy and whooped while Paine stood there with an accepting expression on her smirking face. '_And here I thought they were just quirky little sweethearts.'_ She thought. '_He really cares for her…maybe he won't be so bad after all.'_ Everything just seemed peaceful in that moment. Until…

Yuna pulled back and snapped her head to one side. "Did you hear that?"

Tidus looked behind him. There was a gentle rumbling sound that was making the room tremble. Looking down at where the sphere was, he could see that the vibrations were mostly focused on the giant Yevonite carving below it. The rumbling got louder, and louder, before the carving and the decorated circle surrounding it suddenly split open, creating a large explosion of dirt and stone. Tidus jumped back, pulling Yuna with him, and drew his sword again. Rikku screamed and jumped to her feet, as Paine pushed herself away from the wall.

As the mist of debris died down, there laid a large hole around the area of the sphere, which had mysteriously held its position on a portion of foreign material. What emerged next made Rikku scream even more. Eight large golden rusted legs, each hiding long platinum cannons behind their armour, crept out of the dense hole, clanking and cluttering as they did so. They sunk lightly into the stone as they tensed up, holding up the main body as it ascended. A wide silver body, complete with two large robotic eyes and two spiked fangs, stiffened itself over the hole. On top of the body was a thick black platter with a magic rounded barrier around it, which held the sphere. It towered above them, clicking and whirring furiously.

"The machina!" Paine yelled, picking up her weapon. "It must've been a timed one!"

Yuna whipped out the _Tiny Bees_ in her holsters whilst Tidus took his fighting stance with _Brotherhood_ in his hand. The terrified Rikku crossed the short distance and slowly crossed her arms, her _Dual Blades_ clenched in her loose fists. Paine calmly approached the gigantic machina with her sword, determination in her eyes.

As they were just about to fight, Tidus had realised something. He had been hearing mumbles of panic from the far ends of the room and had even heard a weak banging on one of the doors.

"Guys, there's people locked in there!" Tidus shouted without delay as he looked behind himself. "You all rescue those guards, I'll handle this stupid oil can!"

"What?! You really are crazy!" Rikku screamed back at him. "Look at the size of that…thing! And those sharp thingies and those guns, that's not something you fight every day!"

But Paine had steered her glare from the machina to the locked doors around her. Again she looked at the stretching monstrosity in front of them all before she suddenly leapt to the other end of the room, raising her sword above her head.

"H-hey! What're you-!"

"He's has a point, you know. If that thing brings down the temple, those innocent people will die. We need to free them." Paine said nonchalantly, despite the growing stirs and whirrs that filled the room.

"And," Yuna licked her lips, staring intently at the monster that was easily seven times her height. "I won't let it tear down this place. I'll fight it, too."

Tidus cast a glance at the young woman beside him, surprised and a little proud of her. He had noticed right away when he came back that she had thrown away her shy and hesitant demeanour, now replaced with a bolder and more outgoing nature. Yuna returned the look and nodded with a smile.

"Come on, Rikku. Help me with the doors," Paine muttered, her voice bouncing off of the walls. "You're the thief, after all."

"But…Oh, okay!" Rikku stammered, before she ducked and ran to the left of the temple, adjacent to Paine. "But guys, if you fall or something, we're getting **out** of here! Deal?"

The three of them replied positively. Tidus and Yuna were startled by a sudden variety of clicks from the machina in front of them. It had been completely rebooted and woken up, and was now targeting the young fighters just below its fangs. It gave out a deafening hiss, signalling its hunger for battle.


	5. Sphere of Thunderstorms

**GUYS I'M SORRY I HAVEN'T UPDATED IN SO LONG. I've just been…busy with other stuff. –coughAnimalCrossingNewLeafcough-, so I really couldn't get around to writing any new chapters. :S I'll try and update more frequently in the future, that is…If y'all like it/I get off my lazy butt and start thinking up new scenarios.**

**Anyways, here's a new chapter, finally. You happy? :D**

**And to make up for this hiatus, have an extended chapter! Yayyyy~!**

* * *

**Chapter Five: Sphere of Thunderstorms**

From the small crevice between the twisting machina's menacing metal fangs, a pool of sticky pink oil bubbled and stuck to the spikes jutting out of its mouth. It frothed as loose pink-white foam began to form, sending a sweet yet acidic stench into the air that was so strong it was unadulterated torture for both Tidus and Yuna's nostrils and lungs. They jumped backwards, just as they were about to get slobbered by the putrid liquid, coughing painfully.

'_Man, that stinks!' _Tidus complained, his oceanic eyes trailing down from the machina to the puddle of oil. It was fizzing loudly, eating its way through the cold hard floor as steam rose from it, adding to the unfathomable smell. A clank and a whizzing sound prompted him to look upwards again. The machina's beady aquamarine eyes were expanding and rotating, as its fangs clashed together to create a small rhythm. Suddenly, its eyes blazed like a powerful spotlight, as an onslaught of strange and digitalised noises mixed together. There was a final crescendo of what sounded like a powered-up computer, before strange markings appeared in the glass of the machina's eyes.

"_ENEMY NUMBER ONE ANALYSIS: START. FIRST NAME: TIDUS, SURNAME: UNKNOWN, SEX: MALE, RACE: HUMAN, HEIGHT: FIVE FOOT NINE INCHES. AGE: NINETEEN AND SIX MONTHS."_ Came a robotic, feminine voice. Tidus and Yuna both straightened and looked inquisitively at the seemingly female opponent in front of them.

"Whoa! A talking machina?" Tidus said, looking genuinely surprised. "I haven't seen one of those in ages."

"Why isn't it attacking?" Yuna wondered rhetorically. Tidus shrugged and shifted into a stance again, just incase it was trying to trick them. The machina then focused on Yuna, taking a few moments to complete its apparent scanning session.

"_ENEMY NUMBER TWO ANALYSIS: START. FIRST NAME: YUNA, SURNAME: UNKNOWN, SEX: FEMALE, RACE: HUMAN, HEIGHT: FIVE FOOT THREE INCHES. AGE: NINETEEN AND FOUR MONTHS."_

The machina's eyes then dimmed and constricted again, though its glare on its prey was still frostbitten and condemning. It dug its legs further into the ground, leaving ugly expansive cracks in it. The storm black shield on top of its body crackled with wild sparks, before its owner spoke once more.

"_I AM ARACHNIAR, OFFICAL MACHINA SERVANT OF THE LEBLANC SYNDICATE," _It spoke, still holding its intense stare. "_YOU ARE THE DESIGNATED ENEMIES I HAVE BEEN COMMANDED TO ELIMINATE."_

Immediately, before either of the young fighters could spit out a syllable, Arachniar swung up one of its legs and sent it flying across the room, knocking Tidus and Yuna clean off their feet and into the rough floor. The sharp, rusty metal rifted a messy gash across their sides as the leg slammed into the temple wall, making bits of clay and rock fall from the darkness above.

Tidus, knowing how much trouble he potentially might be in, immediately recovered despite the seething pain. His blood ran cold as he saw that Arachniar's entire being was rumbling with static charge. It was preparing a Thunder bomb! He picked up Yuna's less energetic state as he weaved and bobbed through the thin towers of crackling energy, taking cover in a relatively safe spot.

"Yuna! You okay?" Tidus yelled over the epiphany of noise. He knelt down and placed her on her knees.

Yuna merely grunted and nodded with a fragile smile. They looked back towards Arachniar. It had spun around completely, and its nasty scratched body was closing in on their comparatively tiny skeletons.

"_ALL HAIL THE WHITE, FOR SHE IS THE BEST," _Arachniar stated, emotion void from its voice. "_ALL SPHERE HUNTERS, ESPECIALLY THE DULLWINGS, WILL KNEEL BEFORE HER OR DIE IN THE PROCESS."_

And without warning, its fangs repelled each other as its mouth was revealed to them. It was devastating, horrifying, and too gruesome for any words to do justice for it. Rows of jagged silver teeth lined behind and in front of each other, dotted all along the circular metal lips of the machina, pink foam still bubbling from them. A blinding orb of luminescent yellow laid in the dead centre of the teeth, ready to strike and be done with its prey.

Tidus and Yuna both yelled as they dodge rolled out of the way, narrowly escaping the surging blast of the Thunder bomb. It left a deep indentation in the wall, sunshine just barely leaking through. Fortunately for them, the powerful and concentrated spell left Arachniar immobilised for a minute, allowing them to conjure up a quick course of action.

"What do we do?" Yuna breathed, her heart thumping against her ribs because of the tension. She was almost kneeling on the floor, her flushed palms barely touching the floor. "It's really strong…"

Tidus was hunched over on the ground, shielding his eyes from the wild sparks that emitted from the legs towering over both of them. Noting the immense delay time that Arachniar undergoes, a plan kicked into his mind.

"Well," Tidus started, straightening his posture. "It might be tough, but this thing's slower than a snail. It looks real old, too, like it's gonna fall apart any second. My point is, if we hang out long enough, this thing'll just break itself."

Yuna saw this as a logical idea, but straight away, she considered the state of the temple as well. She was already beginning to see narrow, yet lethal cracks crawling along the walls from the huge hole that Arachniar made. Before she could object to Tidus' plan, he seemed to have read her mind.

"But then again, there's this place," Tidus sighed, thin strands of hair sticking out opposite his head from the electricity. "I guess we're doing this the old-fashioned way, like they did in Zanarkand."

"And what way is that?" Yuna cocked her head towards him, an amused smile tugging at her lips.

"Beating it to the ground as fast as possible!" Tidus laughed, which soon ceased as he noticed that the lump of metal resting on the floor was slowly rising up. "All right, Yuna. You try and distract it with bullets. I'll try to find its weak points."

"We'll have to do this quickly," Yuna added. "And that shell doesn't look very penetrable…But I'll do the best I can." She noticed that a long, skinny leg planted beside her shook and stiffened, driving itself deeper into the stone.

"Well then," Tidus paused for a moment to look up at the chittering, clattering epiphany of noise, clicking its fangs together as the raunchy, yet faint smell of pink oil made itself clear at his feet. "I guess we better get moving!"

He just about managed to leap out of the way before Arachniar's gleaming fangs could reach him. Yuna took this chance to whip out her twin _Tiny Bees_ and fire two rounds of gunfire towards it. But each and every bullet, whether it be aimed towards the fangs or the rusty plates of armour, was bouncing or reflecting off of Arachniar onto the ground or towards Yuna herself. Exasperated, she quickly reloaded her guns with more ammunition and repeated her actions, fully alert about the potential weapons clustered around her.

'_My Gunner dressphere has killed nearly every type of fiend, and yet it doesn't even put a dent in this thing!'_ Yuna thought in distress, taking minute chances at scanning the battlefield for her young swordsman. '_If there wasn't a worse time to leave my Garment Grid behind…'_

Speaking of her swordsman, Tidus was silently sprinting around the room, searching for a vulnerable attack point. This was easier said than done, however. Not only did Arachniar literally take up nearly all the width and height of the temple foyer, it matched and even outdone him in speed and agility; its legs jerking up and down in all directions and positions. It was definitely not something he expected after the pathetic display earlier. To him, it looked like a blurry gold and platinum vortex, and he was already feeling lightheaded from running around in endless circles.

'_Ouch! What the heck was that!?' _Tidus seethed. He had stopped to take a short rest before something swift yet utterly painful lashed at his backside. Following the direction of the sting, he had conveniently knelt just in front of one of the legs. However, something was different about it. There was a small, horizontal hole cracked into the armour, and a stray yet malicious wire had slipped through and was flailing about. Keeping his distance, his mind once again kicked into action. The machina was mainly a Thunder elemental, and the dark blue wire dancing around had sparks of electricity flying out of the lead. Eyes trailing down to his aquatic partner, the _Brotherhood, _he knew exactly what to do.

'_Looks like Lulu's lectures about elementals meant something, after all.'_ Tidus smirked. He slid quietly yet quickly up to the haywire leg. The edge of the _Brotherhood_ shone briefly before he pounced at the wire, making a nice, clean cut on it and the array of other insulated wires hidden by the armour. The moist, foamy discharge of the ocean blade seeped into the insulation and intertwined with the sparks and bolts, delivering a devastating and wild electric surge through Arachniar's entire being.

Arachniar let out an ear piercing and somewhat disturbingly realistic shriek of agony as the blazing thunderous light shone through the tiny subtle cracks in its shell, resulting in a brief show of golden rays, much like the sun shining through the rosy pink clouds at the end of the day. As the rays faded, the severely burnt machina violently shook, and Yuna could have sworn that its beady eyes had more of a reddish tint in them. It collapsed once again onto the ground.

"What did you do?" Yuna stuttered as Tidus ran back to her. She cried out as she noticed the intense red scar through Tidus' ripped mini jacket. He lineated his stance to make it seem like he wasn't hurt all that much.

"I found a crack in its legs. I kinda swiped at it and…**that** pretty much happened." Tidus pointed at the angular shape smoking and sizzling in front of them. A smoking and sizzling shape whose eyes were crackling with fire as concentrated cyan laser beams immediately shot out of them. Both Tidus and Yuna were hit and sent stumbling backwards. Making more noise than ever, Arachniar rose and stabilised itself perfectly.

"_VICTIMS HAVE BEEN RENAMED AS THREATS. COMMENCING SECONDARY ASSAULT PROGRAMME FOR EXTERMINATION." _The synthetic voice from Arachniar spoke. Before the fighters could say anything, the machina had shifted its body, and the black forcefield resting on top of it was tinged orange by the glowing sphere concealed inside.

The sphere was sending some sort of power through the rattling plates of armour and into the mysterious hatch located on the machina's rear. But what that power was, neither Tidus nor Yuna knew. There was a sudden epiphany of screeches and fizzes as the sphere droned with a hypnotic, yet subtle noise. A harsh bold hiss echoed throughout the room as the triangular shapes of the hatch divided, letting loose a very thick, very foul pink gust of fumes. Knowing how much the stench of a simple puddle distracted them, both of the fighters pinched their noses as the fumes could very well have killed them instantly.

As soon as the fumes dispersed and tinged the air a very slight pink, what wriggled out of the hatch nearly made Yuna's stomach churn. There was a small and circular, yet veiny bulb that was angled towards the ground. The bulb was completed coated in the acidic pink oil, and was dripping off and splattering onto the ground, damaging the floor. Adding much more to Yuna's disgust and her surprise, the bulb was somehow expanding, to grow to half of Arachniar's size…the same size…double its size. Tidus could hear and even _see_ the golden sparks of energy coursing through the bulb. The folds in the dab centre of the bulb were peeling back, and all Tidus and Yuna could do was look upon Arachniar's full form, expecting the worst.

"How can it even do that!?" Tidus exclaimed, still staring intently at the smouldering bulb peeping over Arachniar's main body. "I've never seen or, heck, heard of a weapon just expand like that. And I'm from a machina city, for the fayth's sake!"

"I think," Yuna started, pointing her slender finger at the forcefield. "It has something to do with that sphere. It looks like some sort of power sphere, but it's much brighter."

"So I guess that's why those three hunters were after it," Tidus muttered. "Because it can do…whatever that Arachniar thing did."

"I guess so, but…" Yuna stopped to think for a moment. "Why would they need such a sphere like this? Better yet, how did they manage to acquire such a complex machina weapon like this? Weren't most of them destroyed all those years ago?"

"I suggest that we don't look into it too much," Tidus chuckled. "I've come to learn that most Spirans are really weird people."

But deep inside, Tidus was going against his own recommendation. How did three Spiran commoners even come close to using or building a machina like this? For one thing, it was the size of a standard building, and he had quickly learned that Spirans definitely weren't experts on machina like this. At least, not today. They had been isolated from machina for generations, and most of them being Yevonites, strongly opposed them. It was only two years ago that Spira had entered the new era, tossing aside their traditions and returning to the way it was over a millennium ago.

'_They can't be this dense, can they?'_ Tidus tensed, unknowingly clenching his fists. '_I mean, there was that whole fight between those parties that Yuna told me about, and now destroying temples?'_

He was shook back into reality by a frightened Yuna, who was holding tightly onto her weapons. As the gloss from Tidus' eyes cleared, a large jet black stinger had shot out from the parting in the bulb. It was crackling happily as the slimy translucent substance covering it gleamed in the sunlight, which was now shining through multiple seams and holes in the wall. The stinger retracted slightly and shot out a narrow web of electricity, which loosened the walls and made more debris plummet towards the ground.

As they both jumped out of the way of danger, Arachniar hunched over and dug its stinger into the wall carvings, and a huge chunk of stone stuck to the stinger as Arachniar forcefully pulled it out, leaving more holes and cracks in the walls and floor. Being faster than its victims, it hurled the stone slab at both of them. If Arachniar wasn't devoid of emotions, it would have felt immense satisfaction at the sound of stone colliding with the two fighters, leaving them horribly beaten up and sprawled out on the ground.

As Yuna lay there on her back, she looked towards Tidus, who was trying his hardest to get up on his knees. Her insides racked with emotions as she had a flashback to one of her most bitter nightmares. It was the nightmare she had after she had her little outburst on the top of the Celsius. She had forgotten to remove her Songstress dressphere and was greeted by a horrible vision as she went to sleep. She and Tidus were running away from Yevonite soldiers, and were cornered in the site where Vegnagun was sleeping. They took one final glance as each other before being shot down, her final image being her lover lying dead on the ground beside her. Her gruesome nightmare had left her dreading the many nights to come without him at her side.

And now they were in a similar position. Only instead of being murdered by Yevonite soldiers, they were _about to be_ murdered by a horrifying arachnid machina. Everything except the miniguns on its legs, the stinger hovering beneath its body and its soul piercing robotic eyes, now a deep crimson red, went blurry. She was losing consciousness from the exhaustion and the pain.

"I can't give up now," Yuna groaned, just about managing to heave herself upwards, but was quickly and roughly swept aside by one of Arachniar's legs. Luckily, this managed to give Yuna an upper hand in recovering. She was still feeling weak and sore as she stumbled onto her feet, but a sharp yell refuelled some of her fading resolve. She snapped her head towards the source of the sound, and screamed when she saw what was happening.

One of Arachniar's legs was curled up and sustained high up in the air, but that wasn't what shocked her. Tidus had been caught on the sharp end, and was carried up into the air with it. He was kneeling on the hook which the three hinges had formed, and Tidus saw this as his only opportunity to switch sides and climb up onto Arachniar's body.

"Tidus!" Yuna shouted, before Arachniar attacked her. She reciprocated by unloading her ammunition upon its bloodthirsty eyes and managed to destroy one of them, partially blinding it. Tidus looked down at her with a reassuring smile, even though blood was trickling out of his mouth. He had reached the point where the leg met the main body when his expression soon turned to confusion. He felt a strange sensation wash over him, as if his body had suddenly gone empty and lost all sense of gravity. It was only when he felt the leg steepen and he looked down, had he realised what was going on, and he had to slam his head into the armour to find out if he was dreaming or not.

Arachniar had managed to bounce up and, with the bulb and stinger on Arachniar's back coupled with the sphere's harnessed power, had managed to shoot out a magnetic stream of energy through the stinger and towards the very top of the ceiling. The extreme weight of Arachniar's being left a circular rim of sunlight shining through the temple. Arachniar was completely off the ground, and had bent its legs upwards, with its stinger caged behind them. It looked less than a spider and more like a wasp, and was very infuriated towards Yuna for attacking it. Tidus noticed her disbelief, but had to ignore it for the sake of her life.

"Yuna! Keep running!" Tidus commanded, feeling slightly guilty for her shaken state. "I'll be fine, just think about yourself for once!"

After what seemed like an eternity, Yuna finally agreed and set off around the room, keeping her distance from the onslaught of weapons and trying to distract Arachniar from Tidus all the same. He was hanging on as closely as he could as he wondered what to do. Should he risk it and try to steal the sphere right in front of him, or should he weaken Arachniar first? As he shifted his hands, they suddenly gave way and slipped into the bare mechanics of the legs, giving Tidus a violent electrocution. As he hissed and growled in an attempt to recover, he realised what happened. The plates of armour were expanding and slipping off because of the accumulated heat Arachniar had built up. He used this to his advantage to expose weak points for his _Brotherhood_'s _Waterstrike_ ability.

He leapt from leg to body to leg, kicking the plates of armour out of the way and cutting at the wires. Each slash of his sword ate away at his energy as the electricity counterattacked, and with each impact Arachniar whirred and whined as it kept shooting all sorts of deadly Thunder associated spells. With each spell, Yuna was closer to getting hit, and the temple was nearly beginning to crumble. It was utter chaos. The fight was so loud and unbelievable that all of Kilika Village could hear it.

As Tidus hacked away at the eighth and final leg, he could instantly feel the contraptions hidden deep inside the machina die down. Yuna noticed this too, though she was gasping for breath and was about to collapse. Tidus looked down at her victoriously, as Arachniar shook, beeped and its legs fell limp and brushed the chipped and burnt stone floor. The small black forcefield dispersed as Arachniar's broken eye sizzled and steamed.

"We did it…" Yuna breathed, crouching down onto the ground to recollect herself.

"Yeah," Tidus said simply, cautiously treading up the stumped head of Arachniar to claim their prize. "But…something doesn't…"

Tidus knew something was up. Even if the room was completely silent, and Arachniar appeared to be dead, he had a wrenching feeling in his gut; the sign of his instincts. It was a special ability he had. Whenever he had a bad feeling about something, that meant that something terrible or unexpected was going to happen. Lo and behold, as he knelt in front of the black pedestal, his hand resting on the warm surface of the sphere…

He felt a sudden jolt. Just a moment later, he was ripped apart from the sphere and sent hurling to the ground, his _Brotherhood_ skidding across the floor. Bits and pieces of burnt armour flew across the room. Fortunately, it didn't hurt him too much, and was able to catch most of what was happening. He gasped as he saw Arachniar was completely entangled in surges of lightning bolts, and the magnetic force that held it was slowly fading away. He heard a high pitched scream and a light thud, which he slowly and painfully recognised as an oblivious Yuna being knocked out by a forceful blow.

Before he could react, he was made aware of Arachniar's final, yet most destructive attack. "_ENGAGING D-DESTRUCTIVE…FINAL BLOW, THUND-DER D-."_

Arachniar's synthetic voice had been blown out completely, and was now clumping all eight of its unprotected, wired legs together to form a sort of drill shape. An enormous burning orb of Thunder magic was present at the end of the eight wire leads. Then Arachniar began to spin. It went, faster, faster, even faster, until the orb spilt into a spiral and was skimming up and down the drill at the speed of sound.

Tidus froze. He knew where this was going. The supercharged attack and the dissolving magnetic force made it all too obvious and grim. He knew that, even if he rushed as fast as he could, he would never reach Arachniar in time to finish it off. He'd have to witness Yuna's cruel demise, and watch as her flesh and blood splatters him and sends him to his knees. Excruciating couldn't describe it. No word could. He should have told Yuna to flee from the temple, and now they were both going to pay the price. It was all over…

…But no matter how impossible a situation looked, Tidus was never one to give up and let things unfold. He did have some tricks up his sleeve, like he had told Rikku at the end of their race. He lied; he never did finish fair and square.

Leaving his trusty blade behind_, _he powered off towards the blinding white, the sounds too high pitched for him to hear. It was just about hanging by a rip, a seam, a thread, nothing. Tidus held Yuna to his body with one hand, as the blazing drill, as bright as the sun, came to them both like a comet. He was barely hindered by the daylight of the broken ceiling, as he stretched out his hand, the tip of the drill just a nanometre from the skin of his palm…

"_STOPGA!"_

* * *

…

...

"It was just, amazing! Not one thing was moving! It was like time just stood still!"

Tidus roused from his deep slumber, groaning lowly as his eyes slowly adjusted to the unfamiliar light. He sat up as the covers on his body slid off his chest, clasping his forehead as his teeth gritted together. After blinking a few times, he felt the cool air of a fan playing with his wisps of golden hair. Noticing the vaguely familiar covers of the bed and his lover in the bed next to him, also wide awake, he realised that he was back in the Celsius' Cabin. On the far end of the balcony was Rikku, blabbering animatedly to her sceptical Brother. He paid no heed to the both of them however, as Yuna was staring intently at him, as he was towards her.

"You're awake," Yuna greeted, smiling meekly.

"Yep," Tidus quietly responded, drinking in the sight of the quaint yet beautiful place. He chuckled in both sleepiness and his own habit of doing so. "What time is it?"

"Not sure," Yuna giggled, a sound Tidus always loved to hear. "Ask the sun."

"Whaddya mean? You're speaking to him," Tidus laughed, not even caring if he was making any sense or not. Yuna didn't seem to care either, as she burst into another fit of giggles.

This act alerted both Rikku and Brother of his awakening. Rikku squealed, jumped up from her spot on the couch, and skipped over to her best friend, tackling him so hard that he could hardly breathe. It took a few strained calls of Rikku's name before she let go. Brother walked over to Tidus' side, his arms folded and his chapped lips pursued, unsurprisingly looking less than enthusiastic.

"It was about time you opened your eyes!" Rikku cheered, jumping up and down. "Oh, I was just telling the meanie here all about our mission! Leblanc, the temple, how Paine nearly fell into a pit, the whole bunch!"

"Oh, really?" Tidus said with no interest, focusing his attention on his grating commander towering over him. "Nice to know."

"Well, duh!" Rikku scoffed, her hands on her hips. "I bet you don't even know why you're here! When Doctor P. and I were rescuing everyone, there was noise **everywhere!** Even in the underground passageways, we could still hear it! We got the job done, and just after that I heard some sort of shout, and everything went dead silent! We both went to the main room to see you two sleeping against the wall, holding each other, and some weird thing floating in the air! In fact, all the falling things were floating! And then the sphere was lying on the ground, too, so…We got that sorted out."

Rikku silently leaned against the cool metal railings, her fingerless gloves ghosting over them. "It was really strange! Not a sound in the place! Well, that is, until everybody in Kilika was pounding at the door, wanting to see what's goin' on. But still, you were both really, really lucky!"

"Actually, that whole 'time standing still' thing was…actually my fault," Tidus confessed, earning a dangerous grunt from Brother and a noise from the two girls. "You see, I actually…learned some stuff over the last two years I wasn't here, and that _Stopga_ spell was one of 'em. It takes a lot out of you, though. The first time I used it, I went from completely awake to half-asleep!"

"Whoa!" Rikku jumped back, almost falling off the edge of the balcony. "_Stopga!?_ That's like…The toughest spell to pull off! It's right up there with _Flare_ and _Holy!_ Heck, even _Death!_ How did you of all people…"

"Well, you know me. I have weird connections," Tidus shrugged, clearly wanting to drop the touchy subject. "Listen, I need to stay behind for a bit. Are you okay with leaving Yuna up for some fresh air?"

"Stay behind? What for? I hope it's nothing to do with-!"

"I'd very much like that, Rikku," Yuna smiled innocently, stepping out of her bed. "Perhaps we can meet up later, Tidus?"

"Of course, as long as Brother here doesn't take it the wrong way," Tidus nodded towards the tattooed chest of his leader, earning him a low, yet squeaky noise of irritancy. "Speaking of you…"

Rikku laughed nervously and quickly snatched up a concerned Yuna's hand, speeding off towards the Cabin's exit. As soon as they were out of the way, Tidus stood up bluntly, ready to take in his leader's nonsensical and unfair abuse. It was completely quiet save for the whirring of the ceiling fan and the sharp noises of Barkeep's cleaning. Brother's shiny, almost bald head was a seemingly pale colour, as if he was terrified for the well-being of someone. Tidus was sensible enough to know that his worries weren't aimed towards him.

"So," Brother stuttered, his unique voice being surprisingly quiet this time around. "I heard you have had…A 'speech' of sorts. In the temple."

"Yeah, well," Tidus went a little red in the face. "I couldn't really control it. I mean, that Leblanc lady was so…And the stuff she said, it was just…"

"I cannot risk that kind of anger in this group, especially around Yuna!" Brother roared, a short delay in almost every syllable that crumbled off of his pierced tongue. His humid breath smelled like a garbage pail and traces of morning, and Tidus found himself preferring the stench of the waxy pink oil, and that was saying something.

He would have been wondering what happened to the awry machina, had he not been both tired and annoyed at Brother's accusations. He stared flatly into Brother's steeled glare, resisting the urge to flinch and step back.

"What're you gonna do about it? I doubt you can go back in time and prevent me from doing that," Tidus rolled his eyes. "Just 'cause I smile doesn't mean—"

"Well, maybe I can!" Brother spat, grunting as he stuck his head into the air. "I could force you to do some of that time spell stuff, and we'll reverse time and stop you!"

"Wh-what!? But…I, and-! Are you kidding me!?" Tidus gaped in disbelief before smacking his forehead with his palm; a growing habit of his now that Brother had entered his life. "Look man, I can slow down time, I can make it go faster, but there's **no way** I can travel through it! It's impossible! Are you really that stupid!?"

That was too much for Brother. He puffed out his cheeks and dug his fingers into his hands until his knuckles turned even whiter than his skin. He bellowed sentences in Al-Bhed that were incomprehensible to Tidus' ears, before swiping his clawed hands at him. Tidus bounced out of his weak grasp and onto the bed, feet first, sending Brother tumbling onto the creaking floorboards. Tidus simply laughed as Brother kicked and marbled his way back onto his boots, however inappropriate it may seem to him. Predicting Brother was going to attack him again, he dug his bare toes into the mattress, but a chiming signal from the intercom above them brought their conflict to a halt.

"_Brother, where are you?"_ Buddy's voice filtered from the speaker. "_I'm having trouble figuring out this sphere. Can you come down to the bridge and help me out?"_

"_Fryd!? _(What!?)" Brother protested, his voice jumping up an octave as he snapped his head upwards. Tidus could have sworn that he heard his spine crack. "_Pid Buddy, pmuhtea ec paehk nita! _(But Buddy, blondie is being rude!)"

"_Tidus is awake?"_

"Yup. Yuna, too," Tidus responded, sneaking off of the bed and slamming his hand onto Brother's strapped shoulder. "Brother's just being fussy. I'll carry him down if you want me to."

"Hwah!?" Brother whipped around, steaming and shaking at Tidus' cheekiness. Clearly, he did not appreciate, at least, in his mind, Tidus' lies and false innocence. Buddy chuckled in his mellow voice.

"_No, that's fine. Brother, I seriously need your help. You can deal with your personal matters later," _Buddy finished as the signal was cut off.

"But, but-!" Brother stammered, his voice cracking dangerously. He swung his upper body between the intercom and Tidus' amused grin.

"Duties before playtime, Commander," Tidus said in a stately manner, though one could tell that his tone was far from serious. One could even say that it was sarcastic, and that was just not acceptable.

Brother locked himself in place, not a sound coming out of his mouth, before he gave up, very loudly, mind you. He threw his hands into the air and pounded his feet against the floorboards as he stormed off, shoving Tidus out of the way and making all kinds of unorthodox noises as he disappeared into the corridors. Tidus would have damaged his lungs from laughter, but instead he just sniggered, and then sighed. Did Brother even care that he might not have woken up? Instead, all it took was a simple, justified insult to squeeze out his true colours. He was lucky that he managed to wake up in a bed instead of on a drain pipe. Brother was incredibly easy to work out, after all. And with someone as mixed as himself, coupled with having Brother's crush as his own official lover, things were going to be incredibly awkward. And bloody. Mostly awkward, though.

'_Maybe going to see Yuna will cheer me up,'_ Tidus smiled weakly, jumping down onto the floor below. '_She's always managed to make me smile.'_ And with that, he ran past some busy hypellos and into the warm glow of the dark corridors, looking out for any chocobo-haired men in the nooks, nooses stretched across their fists.

* * *

The sunset was extraordinary, as it had always been in Yuna's short, yet dynamic lifetime. Dark, swirling clouds tainted the pink sky, which was softening into a deep blue as the seconds passed by. Rikku had no time to stay with her, as she too had been called inside. As she stood upon the deck of the Celsius, in exactly the same spot as before, looking out at a cloud formation which looked like craggy mountains peaking above a purple mist, the drowsy warm pleasure from before was starting to wear off.

The day had passed by so quickly, and Yuna was comprehending why it was so. What started out as a simple mission to retrieve a sphere, which was to get them used to the grounds of sphere hunting again, turned into a drastically chaotic setup with their old rivals, and nearly the destruction of a sacred temple and her own unfortunate death. She had been knocked out cold after being fooled by Arachniar's false defeat, and the last thing she felt and heard was a strong arm and a rumble before everything went white.

When she rose from her dreamless sleep, Brother was flourishing all over her, constantly asking her if she was okay and if she wanted anything. But she ignored him and found her eyes glued to Tidus' immobile form, much to the dismay of her older cousin. Her younger cousin, Rikku, had to use all of her strength to yank Brother away from her face, and he grimly accepted his defeat once again. Rikku let her have some space to herself while she rambled away at the other side of the room, and the young ex-summoner looked over her swordsman, ashamed, feeling as if it was all her fault that they were both like this.

Yuna had to admit, even she didn't exactly know what had happened when she overheard the story that Rikku was recounting. It was just back then that she learned that Tidus had saved them both in the nick of time, literally. She had witnessed his seemingly natural ability to warp the clock to his liking countless times during the pilgrimage, but rarely had she seen him freeze an enemy in place, let alone an entire area apparently. She pondered, where exactly did he obtain such magic like that?

But that would have to be saved for later. If it weren't for him, she would have been dead. Deader than the Zanarkand ruins, deader than the fiends she had conquered, deader than the busted smoke exhaust that nearly brought down the ship one time, even deader than that. She had to thank him for that. Even after more than two years, he was still her best and most loyal guardian. She spaced out into the aerial wonderland for a few more moments, and just as she was about to go back inside…

"Hey," Tidus whispered, for he had slithered up behind Yuna and entangled her in his arms. Yuna was startled a little, but soon relaxed and sighed happily, leaning back into him.

"Hi," Yuna whispered back, tilting her head upwards on his shoulder to look into Tidus' glassy lapis orbs. "You came up here pretty quickly."

"Well, Buddy saved my hide from our leader, so I took that chance to see you," Tidus chuckled as he stepped beside his lover, his hand trailing down to clasp her hand. "Sometimes I wonder how you can put up with him."

"Wait, Brother attacked you?" Yuna gasped, her eyes skimming over his slightly bruised body. "And just after you woke up?"

"Don't worry! He was way too slow to land a finger on me," Tidus said, trying not to make her worry any more. "But yeah, I actually wanted to make some small talk with him. I guess he was more into trying to beat me up than letting me have my way. Reminds me of when I first came here…"

Tidus sighed, the enticing smile on his face slowly straightening. Yuna's heart sank; seeing her normally energetic and perky lover feeling down and depressed like this was not a pleasant sight for her. She wanted to make him feel better again, and she made do with the only other topic dangling in her mind.

"Hey, Tidus?" Yuna called out gently to him, getting his silent attention. "Umm…Thanks, for earlier."

"What for?" Tidus questioned, turning so that they were both facing each other. She smiled and pushed up against him.

"I meant for saving the temple," Yuna paused. "And me, I suppose."

"Oh, right…" Tidus remembered, squeezing Yuna with one hand. "I'm so sorry, I should've been more certain before going for that sphere. I-I almost let you die! You have no idea how scared I was seeing you lying there! I…I guess I should learn to be more thoughtful, huh? Serves me right…"

"Tidus, don't!" Yuna cried out, lifting her head and forcefully nudging her lip against his. She could feel his shock, more so than him returning the kiss, but she ended it as abruptly as she engaged it. With shallow tears in her eyes, she looked up at him once again. "All that matters is that we're both alive! Don't beat yourself up over it, okay?"

Tidus blinked a couple of times, before hesitantly nodding and turning back to the sky. He muttered an apology and fumbled with her hand as he did so. Yuna was worrying even more now. Usually he would cast aside his sadness and let the sun shine on him again after a few moments, but something seemed to be troubling him more than ever. She wondered, was he being burdened by this new lifestyle?

Her musings were interrupted by a yawning Tidus. He stretched his hands high above his head before letting them drop to the ground. Yuna couldn't help but do the same, and he laughed inwardly at the image of his Lady Yuna taking on his boyish habits. She felt her mouth curve at the twitching of his, and they both burst into giggles. They were so contagious to each other; whenever one laughed the other laughed, whenever one frowned the other did as well. They would never get tired of it, even if it would make them seem a little bonkers to others.

After their rendezvous ceased, Yuna saw that he was smiling radiantly again. Her legs developed a little mind of her own as she shuffled up closer to him. Tidus looked down at her charmingly, which turned into mild concern. Though it was obvious that she was gleeful on the outside, he could still read her like a projector. Her mood was saying otherwise. Something was bothering her, and being the curious and caring fellow that Tidus was, he would soon find out.

"Something the matter?" Tidus asked, his voice light and chipper.

"Oh, umm…Well," Yuna stumbled. This was it, she had to tell him. He gave her a moment to think up her words before she spoke, sighing before she started. "Do you…not like this sphere hunting life? Or at least, don't find it appealing to you?"

Tidus looked confused, so she decided to elaborate, staring at the remaining dips of pink and orange in the evening sky.

"I mean, you don't really seem as happy since you came here. I know it's only been one day, but…You really didn't seem the same the entire time we were looking for that sphere. More quiet, more distant, less hyper…I was just thinking that you might not like this whole business. Because if you don't, then we could always just…"

"Yuna," Tidus spoke softly after her speech flew away on the evening wind. Her nervous eyes steadied themselves on his as he smoothed her shoulder with his ripped glove. "I don't hate this place. I really don't."

Yuna was surprised to hear this, and secretly relieved. But that still begs the question: Why was he acting differently? When she asked Tidus on these very words, she was actually quite unfazed by the answer.

"It's not really the whole running around thing that's getting to me," Tidus had confirmed. He had actually kind of enjoyed rummaging through ferns and climbing up the famous Kilika hammock trees. "It's…well, it's Brother. You know, the guy who's supposed to be in charge? He's just been on my mind all day, and frankly, he's got me creeped out. Plus, angry. Really angry."

"I think I may know what you mean," Yuna sighed, shame and guilt dancing around in her pupils. "I'm sorry for putting you into this position."

"Yuna, if there's anyone to blame, it definitely wouldn't be you," Tidus assured her, watching the sizzling orange sun dip beneath a rift in the clouds. "Heck, I didn't think too highly of him when we first met. But then again, I was practically his slave at the time. I just thought that he'd be more…you know, laid back after we killed Sin. Instead, he's trying to boil me to death because he's jealous or something."

"I know…" Yuna responded, taking it all in. She was having trouble with what to think of Brother's behaviour. She started off peeved at her older cousin, wanting to talk some sense into him, to leave Tidus and herself to their own business, but she chastised herself for acting so bold against a member of her own family; an element which she treasured dearly since her early childhood. Along with altering between telling herself to stop being a goody-goody and shying away at the thought of speaking up for her own personal matters, the pressure built up and she deflated like a punctured balloon. Tidus caught her before she could slip off, and waited a few moments before speaking up again.

"But you know, even though that whole 'machina-is-going-to-crush-us-all' thing was pretty darn scary, I…kinda liked having to protect an important place and fight off a giant talking mechanical spider. It was fun and satisfying, plus the temple's still standing from what Rikku told me. What a wake-up call to get me back in my battling mood, huh?" Tidus smiled, tracing Yuna's chocolate coloured hair with the edge of his finger. "So you see, Yuna, I might get used to this whole new life. It's just Brother who has me in a gripe. He'll have to stop his drama sometime, right?"

Yuna breathed and grinned with adoration, lightly rubbing her head against Tidus' bronzed arm, tinted crimson in the sunset's fire. "I'm glad to hear that. I was worried you might not like this over our time together in Besaid."

"Believe me, those last two weeks were great, but I'm also perfect with flying around Spira on an airship," Tidus laughed quietly, slowly spinning her around to take her into his hold. "And even if I didn't want to, I'd still cruise along if it makes you happy and safe, Yuna."

Yuna could hardly control herself anymore. She reached up and wrapped her arms around Tidus' neck, heating rushing up to her cheeks. He reciprocated by dipping his forehead to meet hers. She flicked the ends of his hair, muttering a small 'thank you' before their lips met.

The sun had completely dissolved through the sea of purple mist, and the first stars were beginning to blink into sight. The silver moon was rising to meet the Celsius, painting the back of it a ghostly mystical platinum. The young couple lazing upon the deck were talking quietly to each other, just enjoying the time they had just for each other, as they always did on their newly found home. It was then that Yuna recalled just how lonely and cold she was when her Tidus wasn't there to make her laugh and smile, and the same went for Tidus himself. They weren't just lovers, they were soulmates; they needed and trusted one another. Whether it be their most passionate moments, or just the simple act of honeyed communication, they felt each other, they were pure and silky. Never could an immortal demon summoned by a powerful sorcerer, nor a deadly soulless weapon sealed away deep underground, tear them away. Never could anything. Never...

"_YUNA! FRYD EC KUEHK UH!? Ec ra rindehk oui!? _(YUNA! WHAT IS GOING ON!? Is he hurting you!?)" Brother gargled over the deck's intercom, scaring both Tidus and Yuna out of their skin. He had seemingly mistaken Yuna's laughs of joy for yelps of pain, at none a better timing than when they were both kneeling on the ground, Tidus tickling Yuna's neck with his breath. Both of them let a glare escape their previous soft eyes, before Yuna gathered herself and spoke back.

"_Famm, e-ed'c kaddehk myda! _(Well, i-it's getting late!)" Brother squirmed, adjusting himself to Yuna's kind, patient voice. Even though she was feeling the exact opposite, but he couldn't know that. "_Lusa pylg ehceta! E ryja nasyta ouin pat! _(Come back inside! I have remade your bed!)"

"I'm guessing he's excluding me, huh?" Tidus shrugged, honestly not caring what Brother would say to him. "Both on the bed and the inside part."

"I don't care what he thinks," Yuna smiled, rising to her feet and offering her hand for Tidus to grab onto. "You're just coming back into the Celsius, anyway."

"Sweet," Tidus grinned, gratefully pulling himself up with his help as they approached the slanted hatch. "Now you just need to convince him to do a little more. Like, give me a place to sleep."

"I'm sure I can do that," Yuna said confidently. "I just need to offer him some more homemade snacks!"

They both laughed heartily as they entered the Celsius, reluctantly sending each other off with a final nudge of affection. They could still hear Brother's screams of what sounded like victory, but they were soon muffled by a silent pillow to the lashing tongue.


	6. Piecing the Mirror

**How're you all faring this fine weather? Well, now that summer has ended, my mood isn't going to take a turn for the better anytime soon. Yippee. . So here's another chapter for you all!**

**NOTE: I won't be putting Al Bhed translations into parenthesises anymore unless they're full run-on sentences. This is to stop you from getting distracted. Hope this isn't too much of a problem!**

* * *

**Chapter Six: Piecing the Mirror**

_In his dream, he was falling, feet first._

_He couldn't see anything. Not above, nor below. Just a white featureless void, like a blank canvas awaiting life to fall upon it. He thought that maybe, he was part of that canvas. For he was foggy and translucent, a ghost. He could hear distant and distorted sounds as the warm air blew through his sun coloured hair. It very much reminded him, brought him back, to two years prior. When he disappeared with the aeons, his friends and people, into the rift of the otherworld, possibly never to be seen again by living eyes._

_The void was dying, in its place, a cosmic purple lined with piercing stars and a creamy horizon. The full moon hung in the middle, swirling with colours of platinum and yellow dunes. Its rhythm resembled the tide, with an engulfing wave breaking the pattern. He stared at it for mere moments, mesmerised. The voices got louder, bolder._

_He felt himself come to a halt, but in midair? He was confused, but not before looking at his feet, hovering above pastel green grass. He touched down, the weight almost crushing him. Mountains dotted into the landscape, cascading waterfalls leaking between all of the imperfections. It was then he realised, he was not on solid ground, but he cast that thought to the wind as he looked out to the ridge._

_A lone figure, his silhouette completely black from the intimidating moon, standing opposite him. His sharp, messy outline, did it copy him? Like a shadow of a shadow? He slowly approached him, standing just behind him. The noises and the voices, he could hear them clearly now. The moon dealt the truth, as crystal clear as its surface now was._

_The voices were of yesterday, they played the words of Leblanc, repeating again and again. He could feel the hidden rage rise once again, her selfishness triggering something inside him. The mist enveloping the moon dispersed, the image of her smug stance accompanying her ploy._

_He had to control himself, to prevent himself from lurching off of the island, from attacking the display. He almost forgot about the figure then, because it shifted to the side, as if daring him to stand beside himself. He followed, the view more apparent now, and he recognised the figure right away._

_Light blue, purple and white lit his front. He bore sandy blonde hair, just like his, tinted white-gold by the light. His eyes were a washed out periwinkle colour, unlike his own which were shining with the calamity of the oceans. His skin was almost identical to his, but his clothes were not, almost. Black overalls, chequered shirt, simpler armguard, he knew him, as did Shuyin know him._

"_I thought you were at peace," He laughed, glancing sideways at Shuyin,_

_He didn't say anything, but just smirked as his laugh got caught in his throat. He angled his head more as the clouds were struggling to keep apart. He lightly sighed as he hid his amusement from his intruder's curiosity at the surroundings._

"_What is this place?" He asked, as his eyes rested once again on the moon._

"_Just a little outlook I found," Shuyin replied, his voice almost a whisper. "I would have guessed that you would like it."_

"_Ahh, so…" He replied, content for the time being. As he steeled his gaze forward again, looking at the woman he had grown to resent a little, his insides licked with fire again. Her words, so uncaring for the temples, taking for granted her privileges and freedom, he wondered how a person could act like that without guilt. Unknowingly, he clenched his fists, not wanting to hear her ringing words, yet not wanting to look away._

"_Such insolence…"_

_He was caught off guard by the identical man next to him, who was now showing his full face to him. "No regards for the sacrifices we made. Not for everybody made. To her, the temples are a children's playground. You were right to do what you did, dream. You cared."_

_He growled at Shuyin's nickname for himself. He wasn't just a dream anymore. He couldn't be…could he? What came next were even more questions. It seemed that Shuyin was still his same old self, hating the populace for what they did to Spira. He could hear the poison in his voice, however soft it may be. But…where was Lenne? Why hasn't he let go? What was this place, and better yet….Why did he know what Leblanc did? Was Shuyin watching him?_

_He didn't notice the dream's shock, and he still carried on. His speech was angrier, even more malicious than before. This worried him, but he listened despite it all._

"_And you know, that was just one person," Shuyin spat, noticing the moon was sinking lower, blending into the white. "There are even more people out there, just like that. Selfish, hating, treading on land which don't belong to them. The Eternal Calm… We humans rule the world now. They're free to do whatever, and they do…that. Destroy the past, grounding it into pieces. They think they don't need the past anymore, even though the past was what made them desire the future."_

_Shuyin shifted his whole body, so that he was perfectly aligned with the dream. "That surging rage you felt yesterday, when you held your sword to her neck, that is what I've always felt for everybody, those past thousand years. It's pitiful, destroying ancient relics of the past for entertainment. And that machina… Disgraceful. She couldn't even control it properly, the poor thing."_

_He let out a harsh cackle before he regained himself, clenching his teeth and setting his jaw. The dream was really worried now. So much so that he started to feel uncomfortable and unwelcome. Shuyin saw this in his eyes, and he shook his head. Folding his arms, he took on a serious look as the night sky paled in the distance._

"_Anyways, that's what I wanted to talk to you about, actually," Shuyin closed his eyes, considering every word twice. "A request if you will. And it...might shock you at first, but..."_

"_Shuyin?" He stuttered, trying to adjust to the invading light. He lingered on the pondering, reluctant twin in front of him, the sudden parting of his eyelids startling him a little._

"_Teach Spira a lesson."_

_He stood there, dumbfounded for a single three seconds. "W-… What?"_

"_You heard me," Shuyin confirmed for him, his tone of voice quite ominous in his own way as his own face contorted into a slightly bothered look. "What else would I have said? Don't you remember me at all?"_

"_Shuyin…" He breathed, blinking a few times and then snapping his head back, a look of anger brushed over his expression, only to drift off and be refilled with disbelief. "What're you thinking!? I thought you forgave Spira for what they did to you! And now you're back to this? You're not satisfied?"_

"_True, I do feel the slightest remorse for my rude request," Shuyin sighed, and dug a clenched fist into his side; an action very much like his copycat. His head turned to look out at the milky violet sky. "But you got to admit, this world isn't perfect, not even after Lady Yuna ruined my plans. Apart from you, your family and the Lady's companions, nobody knew what I was about to send them into. They're like fish, really; mention something important and they'll just disregard it. Just as dependent as fish, also. Can't walk in a straight line without the Meyvn or the Praetor holding their hands."_

_He had to admit, Shuyin did have a decent point. Not good, but not completely asinine. Yuna had told him about the conflicts of the two major parties, and how chaotic it got when their leaders disappeared one day. They blamed each other for the mess, and nearly repeated history with just their tongues alone. It was only when Yuna sung Lenne's song in the Thunder Plains, they realised their biased views from two years prior still slept in their hearts. The conflict died down, their selfishness diminishing, but not for everybody. He and Shuyin could still sense the darkness plaguing the Farplane, polluting the wildlife and killing the scentless flowers. He thought that it was just the foreign machina hidden in its core, disrupting the flow and essence of nature. But he started to wonder…was it really the hatred for Spira's life, which was causing it to die?_

_But was it really that bad, that disgusting, and that pitiful? Did everyone really deserve their lives flashing before their eyes, before they disintegrate into nothingness? He shook his head; of course they didn't. He didn't exactly get the most welcoming of arrivals in that unprecedented dimension, but really, they had a good reason for themselves. Sin was active, roaming the oceans, planning its next attack on either a bustling city or a peaceful village. There was the possibility that they could all die at any second. They certainly didn't need an agile young man who would so blatantly disrespect the teachings of Yevon to 'save' a certain summoner, especially if that man claimed to have come from a dead city and was deemed insane by most of his 'friends'. No, the era of Yu Yevon's ruling over the world had come to an end. He didn't kill Sin. Yuna didn't kill Sin. They _all _killed Sin. For once, the many races of Spira tossed aside their lashings, banded together and sung the fayths' hymn, weakening the terror and allowing just one chance to end it all. The thousand year old curse had finally been lifted, and Yu Yevon, and the thousands of weeping souls he had taken with him, was finally sealed away in the Farplane. Spira was restored to its former glory, and that is truly how it should stay, and carry on._

"_Spira is fine as it is," He finally stated, crossing his arms contently. "Let them have their fun. We all pulled ourselves together and created this new Spira, you know. Let butchers play with their knives. I'm not gonna crash the party for them all."_

_Shuyin didn't say anything. He didn't say anything for a long, long time. He thought that he was at a loss for words; that he realised that his argument was simply a straw man built near the shore. He had his head drooped slightly, his sandy strands of hair obscuring the frightening blue crackles in his eyes. The onlooker thought he heard something, then. Something like a very faint, yet very dark chortle. It grew louder, more frequent, more…terrifying. His laugh wasn't carefree like it should have been. Rather, it was exactly like the one he possessed after his tragic death. His head floated upwards, and he could swear that his laughter's tears were rolling down his shrouded face._

"_You really are what your name states, aren't you?" Shuyin chuckled, his fit dying down like the sizzling moon. "Always on the bright side of things, trying to bring happiness and life with just your face …"_

"_I told you, man. I'm not attacking innocent people." The human bolded, still looking him in the eye. Shuyin, his expression unchanging, reached forwards and brought down his palms upon the other's shoulders, as if preventing him from leaving. He wasn't particularly comfortable with this, and that would be reinforced into his mind as Shuyin spoke once again._

"_Listen, dream. I know what's best for us right now. I and the fayth know much more than your parents ever cared to realise about you, if you can even call that drunkard and that ditzy fangirl of his your 'parents'."_

_Before he could verbally lash back at him, Shuyin shook him and continued._

"_And I understand your pain. It would be unusual for me not to; I _am_ you, after all. Well…I used to be, but we'll get to that. See, the fayth…saw something in you, that wasn't like anything else in their little glass ball. Whilst everybody else was having their perfect little lives, you were quite the black sheep of that lot. Uncaring parents, pressured standards, difficult social life… It was then that Bahamut, your creator, noticed that you had an aura. An aura of longing and rebellion that could near enough see through the illusion that you were living in, as the same with your father. Great Bahamut looked onwards, in great dawning, that perhaps you and Jecht could be the chosen ones. The ones that could pull Spira out of its' turmoil. It took near a thousand years to free the both of you…but it worked. And look what happened, huh?"_

_Shuyin could sense that he was going to ask more questions. He had the urge to do so in his confusing moments, after all. But still, he carried onward, his speech falling into place the longer he droned on._

"_Now you're part of the world above. One of the six living warriors that defeated the physical embodiment of destruction itself. One of the seven true leaders of the world. But still, I can still feel a hidden bout of darkness in the world. Darkness which spreads silently, but quickly. You're not an ordinary human like the rest, dream. You were brought into existence by the supernatural. You share, deep within you, some of my fire. Some of my purpose, also. I was born a resentful man; I could see the flaws of everybody around me. Spira is still too imperfect to let go without one final show. Prove them that I'm right."_

"_So you're really still at this, huh?" He said, sighing lightly. "You want me to act like your resurrection and resume your plans for the 'cleansing' of Spira?"_

"_I've learned my lesson. I don't want to destroy everything, but I feel like it doesn't deserve to get off that easily, either," Shuyin confessed. "But yes, exactly. These disgraces for humanity are sucking the pureness out of this once magnificent planet. You're the only living person who truly comprehends the heaviness of this ordeal. I would start over and do the deed myself, but Lenne and I seemed to have locked ourselves in this confounded Farplane for good. I don't mean for Spira to be destroyed, but rather to be saved. Get rid of the mother parasites, and our world will be right, once and for all."_

_He was honestly unsure of what to say. His mind was reeling, ripping out reasons for why or why not he should accept his new mission. 'He's insane! He hasn't lived for a thousand years; he's forgotten what life is like… But...his intentions are good, and he does bring up solid points… Are you nuts!? He's pretty much asking you to be an assassin! What if this leads to something worse… Getting rid of a few troublesome people won't be that impactful. It's actually better in some ways… Dah! You're a disgrace! No wonder you broke the teachings on purpose, you…'_

_The mental battle trembling with power, bringing his fists to vibrate in anger, was cut short as a blinding orange light bloomed throughout the landscape. The moon had disappeared and replacing it was a golden orb of warm sunlight, shining on the two men from behind. Shuyin harrumphed in mild annoyance, and released his tight grip on the other's shoulders. Half of him squinted through the morning light, the other half was still glaring forward._

"_Daybreak," Shuyin simply said, biting down slightly on his faintly coloured lip. "It comes so fast in dreams, doesn't it? I guess that's why they don't last very long. Dreams are…well, fleeting. I guess that means you have to go."_

"_Right," He said, and he swore he could feel his feet leave the ground. "I'll, uh…think over what you said."_

_Shuyin smiled, albeit devilishly. "That won't be necessary. Not today, at least. Because you haven't seen the last of me."_

_His eyes widened, and he was looking at the mischievous person directly, now. Before he could protest, Shuyin had coiled around him and pushed him towards the end of the island. It was then he realised, that the moonlit valleys below had been replaced by golden-grey clouds._

"_Hey, stop! What're you doing!?" He yelled, looking back at his companion with a mix of malice and fear._

"_Relax, won't you?" Shuyin scoffed, as if this was just a normal procedure for him. "This's only a dream. You can't die in a dream; you always wake up just before you do."_

"_That doesn't make it any better!" He yelled, the heels of his yellow padded sneakers teetering on the crumbling edge of the soil. "S-Shuyin!"_

"_Until we meet again," Shuyin paused, before he spat out his final word for the night. "Dream."_

_The next thing he knew, he was falling again. However, this time he was falling head first. Instead of near soundless white, he was surging through heavy thunder and thick raindrops. Time went by, the clouds getting heavier, the rain turning to stones. He was finding it harder and harder to breathe. He didn't scream, but rather looked onwards in silent, miserable expectance. He was at a loss for oxygen, he could see nothing but black. He thought he would die here, in the sky, but before he took his last breath…_

* * *

Tidus woke up to the sound of rattling metal.

His ocean blue eyes darted open. He was lying on his side, curled up into a ball. He was in total darkness, his head just centimetres away from the golden ceiling. He was sandwiched between two treasure chests, a near invisible orange hatch just in front of him. Cautiously sitting up so that he wouldn't knock himself out on the ceiling like the night before, he yawned and clasped his ears.

"Blondie! Blondie, are you in there!?" Came the unmistakeable voice of Brother as he once again shook the thin circular mass of metal. "You are late, again! You are lazy pig!"

Tidus growled, slitting his hand through the loose hatch to jab his boss in the ribs. He thought he had done a successful job, as Brother was leaping around, screaming like a toddler and massaging his chest. He poked his golden bedhead through the hatch, sniggering at him. He quickly snaked his flexible body out into the open when he saw that the enraged Al Bhed had combined his fists.

Bringing himself to his socked feet, he looked back on the metal shelter with a look of gratefulness. Truth was, when Tidus retreated to his quarters for the night after his and Yuna's little session, he had come across the disassembled main body of Arachniar when he had stumbled through the steam pipes again. It was then he noticed that there was a small door that he could take apart and pass through. When he got inside, he was surprised to see that it was completely empty save for the supply boxes. It was dark, really dark, but it protected him from the intense heat just outside. He would honestly say that he had a good night's sleep if not for his bizarre reunion with his doppelganger.

Which, by the way, if he told Brother about that dream, he'd might as well go and arrange a meeting with the ocean floor since that's where he would be in the next ten minutes. Any friend or acquaintance of Shuyin was a threat to Brother's sense of security.

"What are you looking at, girly?" Brother narrowed his eyes, trying to seem intimidating. Instead, Tidus only shot him a tired look of disgust and began walking past him.

"Nothing at all, leader," Tidus groaned, walking up the stairs to the elevator as Brother trailed just behind the flaps of his black overalls. He jumped into his large yellow shoes and again into the elevator. "I'm just obliged that you would come all the way down here for me. That was sarcastic, by the way."

He quickly added his last sentence in before Brother started using his hair roots as a nail file.

* * *

Tidus leaned upon the bridge from the railings of the podium, looking over the small array of swords from his multiple coloured sheathes. He had written their respective names upon the thick materials, as to not get them mixed up. He had quite a fascination with swords during their pilgrimage, and made a silent vow to collect as many of them as possible. He grimaced as he recalled one of his memories of the winding journey, when he revealed that he had spent most of the group's gil on his _Lionheart_. He was extra alert for the rest of the day, worrying that Kimahri or Wakka would toss him into a fiend's gaping mouth.

"Nice swords," Paine said as she walked up to the young warrior, only mildly interested.

"Oh, uh…thanks." Tidus stuttered, distracted by her strange greeting. "Hey, where were you last night?"

"I stayed behind to clean up Kilika's mess," Paine shrugged, mimicking his stance on the chilly metal bars, folding her arms as she did so. "It took all night. I won't complain, though – the more time away from Brother, the better. I'm glad you and Yuna aren't too hurt."

"Nah, it just stung a bit, but it's all right now," Tidus tried to suppress a smile, absent-mindedly staring at the thin leather collar constricting Paine's neck. "I guess I just worked myself up too much. Even a guy who stood right up against Sin can get a little rusty after two years."

Just then, a large golden flash dived right in front of them, giggling as she swayed and tipped in place.

"Looks like Paine really likes you, Tee!" Rikku laughed, poking the porcelain coloured woman in the forearm. "I've never heard her say **that** many things to a total stranger!"

"Get off," Paine muttered warningly, swatting away her bare finger. "At least he isn't completely hopeless like another blondie we all know."

"H-hey!" Rikku pouted, her emerald green eyes turning large and glassy. "You're looking at one of the other people who defeated Sin, you know! I can't be that bad, right Tidus?"

"I dunno, Wakka also was one of us," Tidus teased, his eyes fraught with mischief. "And a hornless Ronso, a dead warrior, a trigger-happy Al Bhed leader…"

"Ooooh, shut up!" Rikku fumed, her cheeks sporting a rosy glow about her. "You're no better yourself, you…part-dream, aeon…whatever you are!"

She had seemed to have let out a little too much for both of their likings. Paine raised her eyebrows in honest surprise, her crimson lips twitching a little. Rikku realised what she had spurted out, and almost immediately regretted it in fear of Tidus' reaction. To her concern and incredible relief…she didn't really know what Tidus' general expression meant, though she could see the expected red glare for a split second.

"Oh! Uhh…I-I'm sorry! Maybe I should've…kept my mouth shut, heheh…" Rikku wavered, as though there were pairs of constricted godlike eyes looking down upon her. "Huh? Hey, where're ya goin'?"

"Just to the front," Tidus said, holding up the muscles of his face as he leapt from the podium. "I'm, uh…just gonna see what we're doing today."

"D'aagh! Nice going, Rikku!" She yelled, attempting to kick herself from behind. Her attempts at injuring herself turned out to be not as expected, as she had somehow lost her balance and dug her tanned face into the lavender tinted metal of the floor.

As Rikku was fooling around, much like her older sibling, Paine was once again thinking quietly to herself. She wrapped her leather-bound arms tightly around her, her elbows sticking out slightly as she delved into her own little world. '_Part-dream, part-aeon, huh? Interesting. I hope she didn't make that up.'_

Meanwhile, Yuna had been chatting humbly with Brother, who seemed to be hanging onto each and every one of her words. Unknowingly to himself, his somewhat misshapen face was ever so slowly looming closer to hers, as if he was taken by the warm highlights of her beautiful eyes and the milky flawless texture of her immaculate creamy skin, flushed a slight pink. He was so hypnotised by her features that he didn't notice his ultimate enemy resisting the urge to laugh, as Tidus thought him a complete buffoon from his tilted stance and his puckered plump lips. Yuna however, did, and her rerouted attention to the young man had caught Brother off guard, but definitely not in the manner it intended to be. Discarding Rikku's previous outburst for the time being, he decided to take him what harmless insults Brother had prepared for him this time.

"Trying to steal my Yuna again, huh?" Brother boomed, his voice so out of sync that it physically hurt to listen to. He could hear Yuna's single word of lecturing, but for once, he ignored her. "Blackmailing her into telling me to give you a room, huh?"

"So that's what you were talking about," Tidus smiled, still looking at Yuna. He walked closer to the two of them, his line of sight nearly perfectly aligned with Brother's. "Brother, how about a proper bed? Don't you think it's a little…unsafe, to just stick me down there?"

"That's not what I mean, you…you sicko!" Brother whimpered, though the rolls of skin on his face conjured up at least a hundred frowns. "You want to get all snuggly with Yuna in a **bed**!? Not happening, pal!"

"That's not what _**I**_ mean, you…" Tidus had to stop himself from muttering an inappropriate word, not to mention he had gone a little red in the face from his leader's specific accusation. "Think of it like this, okay? Would you sleep in a noisy metal corridor at around fifty degrees Celsius? And that's a temperate, by the way. Not just the ship's name."

"…Huh?" Brother cracked, his utterly hollow head rolling onto his shoulder. He had no idea what Tidus just said. In his inconvenience, he might be a somewhat quick learner concerning the Spiran language, but he wasn't perfect at it. Tidus' tendency to occasionally speak at an alarmingly fast rate sometimes had befuddled Brother to no end. He rolled his eyes at the defeated mannequin and Yuna chirped a faux laugh, trying to break the silence.

"Seriously Yuna, I might've had my moments, but…" Tidus started, his arms falling limp. His stare was deadpanned as he looked into the irises of her mismatched eyes. "_How can you put up with him?"_

"I have to. He's part of my family, after all," Yuna sighed, slightly bothered by the white substance frothing at Brother's hanging jaw. "Even if he's…a little different, I've come to learn how to cherish my relatives with all my heart. My parents might be gone, but…the Al Bhed tribe really cares for me, as do I."

"Y-yes! Listen to her, yes?" Brother had snapped out of his entranced bubble, awkwardly holding a fist to his connecting shoulder. "That's exactly why I am important to her! I am family! Where is your family, huh?"

"Don't talk about that," Tidus mumbled, gritting his teeth and directing his eyes elsewhere. "They all died years ago."

Brother didn't get the actual meaning of his shady confession, for nobody had told him of Tidus' complicated origins yet. Oblivious to his dormant misery, he began to shamelessly berate him more. Yuna had tried to stop her cousin, but her humble and irritatingly peaceful nature let her down.

"Of course you would not know, then! They died when you were young! Bet you wish you didn't have such a smart mouth now, eh? What would your dead parents think?"

"You know, Brother, if you're not gonna shut your yap yourself," Tidus balled his fists, the same dark veil from yesterday shadowing his intense blue eyes. He could hear Yuna admonish a little. "At least scrub out your mouth with a Water Flan. Your breath's kinda killing me."

"Hey! Do not speak to your leader like that!" Brother shrieked, feebly hitting him in the shoulder. Just coming in contact with the shoulder blade underneath his jacket cracked his knuckles. "Your _vy-_…father and mother would be ashamed! Is that the mouth you talked to them with!?"

Tidus didn't respond. He didn't even sputter an ounce of noise. Instead he kept silent and dipped his head slowly, his fists tensing and loosening with each wave of clashing emotions. Brother saw this as a sign of his victory and began to dance, hollering and whooping in egotistical glee. His cold hand was still clutching onto the stitched yellow material of Tidus' stitched jacket, his movements throwing the taut man around a little. Yuna felt a little sick and embarrassed to her stomach, whilst Tidus mustered up all of his self-control to keep himself from lashing out.

They all noticed that the deck had gone a little quieter. Then, there were two pairs of footsteps; one pair nimble and panicky, the other pair calm and collected. They both ceased as they surrounded the two men, and it wasn't long before a shrill voice broke through.

"Hey! What's going on?" Rikku asked, clearly not knowing the definition of timing. Paine rolled her eyes partially and looked towards Yuna, who was trying her best to take the situation in as acceptingly as possible.

"Oh, uh… It's nothing," Tidus stuttered, looking all around him and quickly, yet painfully throwing Brother's hand off of himself. The last thing he needed was a bunch of attention, never mind in front of the tattooed Al Bhed. "Really, I-I'm fine."

"Real-ly?" Rikku emphasised, narrowing her eyes and pursing her lips. Her feet set themselves into a quiet, almost judgmental pattern as she circled the two men with caution. "Your voice doesn't sound all that convincing, you know! Do you really think you could get away with lying of all things? You!? Come on, what's Brother been doing to ya this time?"

"_Cecdan," _Brother whispered menacingly, scrunching up his pale dirty fingers as he loomed over his sister. "Shut up and go away, or, uh…_E femm gelg oui cu rynt, oui femm lruga uh ouin ehcetac_!"

"Brother!" Yuna gasped, surprised at her cousin's bluntness.

"Ah! Ah…" Rikku stuttered, losing her voice as mild tears welled up in her spiral jade eyes. She started to breathe heavily as she tried to hold her fists in place. Not being able to look at him anymore, she let out a scream and stormed off to her seat. "Fine! Excuse me for being so innocent, _zylgycc!"_

"Do. Not. Talk to me! Like that!" Brother screamed back, having half a mind to tackle the furious Al Bhed to the glass. Huffing and childishly turning his back to her, he was greeted by an onlook of condescending eyes. Brother once again took this the wrong way, and kneeled down on the ground, almost beginning to cry.

"I know, I know," Brother sobbed, sifting his flabby chin on the rough material of his overalls. "This ship is out of control. I wish some people would wise up! Everybody is just so mean!"

"Says you," Tidus and Paine said in unison.

"Shut up!"

"Brother," Yuna smiled and stood her fingers over his back, trying to seem sympathetic. "I know it's…difficult, for you to be a leader, especially in a group like this,"

She didn't hear the high-pitched snort from the direction of the cockpit.

"But Brother, you know what they say, right? No matter how strong the members might be, the leader is the strongest and rules over all! That is…well, their description! I believe that if you try hard enough, and try to get along with your crew, they will respect you even more! They might even bow down to you, umm…give you food! And they won't bother you! And…"

Yuna sighed as she saw that Brother was still writhing. She walked over to Tidus' side and looked up at the two persons. "It isn't working, is it?"

"I often thought you a good motivational speaker," Paine shrugged, poking the hardened legs of the chocobo haired statue with the tip of her black boot. "But it seems like he doesn't want to listen. It's pretty bad if he ignores you, you know."

"Bad? That would be fantastic in my opinion," Tidus sighed, not even caring about the sharp hissing of the automated doors from the podium. "I never thought first and main impressions could be so…interesting."

There was an uncomfortable silence, which shattered when a deeply tanned Al Bhed jogged excitedly up to them, which was quite unusual for the laid-back wingman. Brother immediately sprung up from the floor and called over his sister, which was not a pleasant action for the ones standing right next to him. They all spread out around him, awaiting the news that Buddy was about to spill.

"Guys, I just looked through the sound files from last night," Buddy started, his monotone voice almost breaking. "And there are some **big** sphere recordings focused in one area."

"Really? Where are they?" Yuna questioned, barely audible from the noises of intrigue.

"It's strange, actually," Buddy folded his arms, though he still looked happy. "The waves are actually coming from Luca."

"Wait, Luca? Large sphere waves?" Rikku admonished, her insides lurching from both delight and utter confusion. "But…I thought it was against the law or something to litter spheres all around the city!"

"You sure the oscillo finder isn't confused or anything?" Tidus twirled his finger around, simulating uncertainty. "Luca's got lot of spheres, right? The Sphere Theatre, the screens, the Sphere Pool…"

"I'm sure," Buddy nodded right away. "Luca's sphere devices have all been modified so as to not interfere with the business. But not only are these readings visible, they seem to be really powerful as well. Like there's some foreign energy swirling around in there."

"Wait, what?" Rikku said again, even more confused than ever. "How can you put foreign stuff in a sphere? Wouldn't it just break or something?"

"Hey, I might be a sphere hunter, but that doesn't mean I know why water and pyreflies create revolutionary technology, let alone putting other stuff in them," Buddy tapped his foot, looking towards the driver's seat. "We won't find out by just standing here, you know."

"Besides, it's been a while since I went to Luca," Paine nonchalantly tossed in. "We could get some supplies, and look for that sphere together."

"A-all of us?" Brother whimpered, looking towards his enemy, who was trying his best to ignore him.

"Yes. All of us," Yuna chimed, secretly and silently scratching the back of Tidus' jacket with her nail. "Buddy and Brother haven't been out for a while, anyway. We could do with a little loosening up!"

"Can we look for it later?" Brother whined, jumping up and down on the spot. "Or maybe we could have blondie stay behind and watch for any-!"

"**No**." The entirety of the bridge enforced at the same time.

"Augh! Fine! You all win!" Brother snivelled as he dragged his feet to the large crimson seat, crawling onto it and just barely hanging onto the grip of the handlebars.

"Sheesh, he really wants to lock me into a dark metal room, huh?" Tidus groaned, backing up against the eastern wall for support. Yuna did the same, partially listening to the whistling winds that the Celsius fought against.

"I'm sure he doesn't mean it, Tidus," Yuna said sweetly, looking up at him and stepping closer to him. "Brother's just sensitive. I'm sure he'll want to become friends with you someday."

"I guess so," Tidus kicked himself upwards slightly, the pressure from the engines making the floor vibrate. "The question is, what day? It could be years before he starts calling me by my name."

"Well I didn't catch your name the first time we met!" Yuna tried to feign hurt as she jumped away from him playfully. "I had to have Wakka tell me!"

"Well we didn't have much time to talk, did we?" Tidus laughed, tucking one of his hands behind his head while the other rose and shook. He imitated, quite accurately, the voice of an old lady. "'_Stay away from the summoner'!"_

"You're such a bad man!" Yuna howled hysterically, doubling over along with him. She eventually managed to pull herself together, looking up at him with warm eyes as did he. "And I wouldn't change that for the world."

As the pilot recklessly shifted gears, the airship gave a sudden violent jolt. Yuna, with nothing to latch onto, was hurled forwards into what would be a painful meeting with the luminescent wall. This was adverted when Tidus just managed to slide over and cushion her collision. He slid his arms over her back and laughed as Yuna clutched onto his shoulders.

"Why is my Lady Yuna always falling?" Tidus teased her jubilantly, tightening his grasp around her and leaning back into the cool metal.

"I-I don't always! Yuna quickly retorted, flustered out of her mind. She looked for a means of escape, but quickly calmed down at the sound of his chipper laughter. Giving up, she allowed herself to relax in his arms, smiling lazily as she did so.

"I don't mind, really," Tidus said meekly, playing with the ends of her feathery brown tresses. "I could get used to this if we end up like this all the time."

"Me too," Yuna breathed, sheepishly burying her head deeper into his neck. For once, their Al Bhed leader didn't notice their sparking affection for one another, as he shifted gears yet again and slammed down onto the accelerator with his dusty black boots, pointing his finger towards the watercoloured horizon.

"_Haqd cdub_: Luca!"


End file.
